SERMONS 
FOR  LAY  READERS 

IN 

THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH 


BISHOP  OF  MARQUETTE 


OF  Pfi//y^ 


^^ 


nCT  3  0  1928 

"Logical  st^ 


BV  677  .P74  W35  1913 
Williams,  Gershom  Mott 
Human  questions  and  divine 
answers 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND 
DIVINE  ANSWERS 


HUMAN  QUESTI0M~-2ii§^ 


AND 


DIVINE  ANSWERS 


Short  Sermons  Expressly 
Written  for  Lay  Readers 
in  the  American  Church 


BV  ^ 

GERSHOM  MOTT  WILLIAMS 

Bishop  of  Marquette 


* 


MILWAUKEE 

THE  YOUNG  CHURCHMAN  COMPANY 

1913 


COPTBIGHT    BY 

THE  YOUNG  CHURCHMAN  CO.. 
191S 


TO 
THE  MOST  BEVEBEND 

Daniel  Sylvesteb  Tuttle,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

PBESIDINQ  BISHOP, 
THIS   BOOK  IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE ix 

HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE  ANSWERS: 

I. — Come  and  See 1 

-*  II. — Nathanael's  Question 7 

III. — The  Hostile  Jews 14 

,y^  IV. — NicoDEMUs'  Question 21 

V. — A  Woman's  Question 28 

VI. — Faith  is  Work 35 

VII. — The  Reason  for  Fasting 42 

V  VIII. — The  Traditions  of  the  Elders       ...  49 

ir     IX. — The  First  Stone 56 

X. — No  Faith,  No  Power 63 

XI. — The  Law  of  Forgiveness 70 

XII. — Eternal  Life 77 

XIII. — The  Way  Home 86 

XIV. — Profit  Through  Affliction      ....  92 

XV. — The  Authority  Over  Us 100 

XVI. — The  Error  of  the  Sadducees     ....  108 

XVII. — Our  Lord's  Self-Manifestation     .      .      .  114 

XVIII. — Our  Own  Duty  First 120 

XIX. — The  Gospel  to  Abraham 126 

XX. — The  Coming  of  the  Kingdom     ....  132 

XXI. — The  Christian  Ideal  of  Marriage       .      .  139 

THE  SHADOW  OF  PETER 148 

FRAGRANT   SERVICE 157 

THE  HEM  OF  CHRIST'S  GARMENT 164 

THE  BUSINESS  OF  SERVING  THE  LORD    ...  171 


viii  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

AN  ADVENT  WATCHWORD 177 

BROTHERLY  LOVE 186 

MERCY,  THE  TRUE  TEST  OF  RELIGION     ...  192 

THE  TRAVAIL  OF  THE  SOUL 200 

THANKSGIVING  DAY 208 

THE  MISSION  OF  THE  SEVENTY 217 

THE  BLOSSOMING  OF  THE  WILDERNESS      .      .  225 

THE  SINLESSNESS  OF  CHRIST 232 

FOR  EASTER-TIDE 241 

THE  SEPULCHRE  IN  THE  GARDEN       ....  249 

DELIVERANCES 255 

CHRISTMAS-TIDE 268 

CONSECRATION 275 

THE  LORD'S  PRAYER 283 

THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 290 


PREFACE 

For  many  years  the  writer  of  these  Sermons  has 
been  obliged  to  call  upon  laymen  to  read  occasional 
services  in  small  mission  churches.  In  order  to  supply 
them  with  sermons  to  select  from,  he  has  bought  books 
by  many  writers.  There  are  a  great  many  books  of 
excellent  sermons,  but  most  of  them  are  not  exactly 
what  is  wanted  for  lay  reading.  They  are  either  too 
long,  though  not  too  long  when  the  author  delivered 
them;  or  the  note  is  too  personal,  though  that  might 
also  have  been  a  merit  when  they  were  first  preached; 
or  they  are  too  elaborate  and  learned,  making  too  great 
demands  upon  the  audience  to  follow  them;  or  they 
may  be  too  English;  that  is,  all  the  illustrations  and 
allusions  are  taken  from  English  life. 

Now  such  sermons  may  be  useful  in  the  hands  of 
persons  competent  to  adapt  them  to  the  particular  needs 
of  a  small  American  congregation.  But  so  few  of  my 
lay-readers  have  had  this  power  of  adaptation,  that  I 
have  been  forced  to  write  many  short  sermons  for  them. 

What  I  have  kept  in  mind  has  been :  as  much  brev- 
ity as  was  consistent  with  a  certain  air  of  complete- 
ness, simple  language,  clear  statement,  short  para- 
graphs and  short  sentences,  so  that  the  reader  would 
not  be  apt  to  make  a  mistake  in  the  sense.  Then  I  have 
sought  a  certain  obviousness.    A  lay-reader  can  hardly 


X  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

do  justice  to  a  sermon  unless  he  can  believe  it  to  be 
true,  and  adopt  it  as  a  statement  of  his  own  views. 
Then  I  have  purposely  avoided  the  personal  touch,  and 
let  facts  and  illustrations  speak  for  themselves.  And 
I  have  felt  that  the  lay-reader's  work  ought  never  to 
be  put  in  the  place  of  the  clergyman's;  it  is  purely 
supplementary,  so  there  is  here  no  note  of  authority, 
nor  is  there  any  controversy.  Nevertheless,  all  the 
sermons  touch  on  personal  religion,  and  keep  close  to 
the  Church's  way,  and  it  is  my  hope  and  prayer  that 
they  may  be  of  help  in  the  forward  work  of  the  Church. 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

I. COME   AND    SEE. 

Where  dwellest  Thouf—St  John  1:38. 

HE  place  where  John  the  Baptist  was 
preaching  and  baptizing  when  Christ 
was  ready  to  begin  His  ministry  was 
a  spot  across  Jordan,  near  by  the 
southeast  corner  of  Galilee.  It  is  hard  to  realize 
now  that  the  country  where  so  much  of  the  Gospel 
story  was  acted  out  was  so  small.  But  a  strong 
man  could  have  walked  in  a  day  from  Nazareth, 
or  Cana,  to  Bethabara,  which  is  believed  to  be  the 
place  of  the  baptism  of  Christ.  The  multitudes 
who  went  out  to  John  were  coming  and  going. 

There  was  probably  a  village  there  where  light 
entertainment  could  be  had,  but  it  is  not  probable 
that  in  that  country  and  climate  men  who  were 
naturally  the  visitors  of  the  Baptist  would  make 
much  of  sleeping  in  the  open.  The  narrative 
points  to  three  days  when  our  Lord  was  near 
Bethabara.     There  was  the  day  which,  if  we  had 


2  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

no  other  account,  would  seem  that  of  His  baptism, 
and  on  the  following  day  John  pointed  Him  out 
to  Andrew  and  his  companion  as  "The  Lamb  of 
God,"  and  the  day  after  that  was  the  return  to 
Galilee,  taking  Cana,  where  the  wedding  occurred, 
on  the  way. 

The  question  can  hardly  refer  to  the  home  of 
Christ,  which  had  been,  until  then,  at  ^Nazareth, 
and  was  soon  to  be  for  some  time  at  Capernaum; 
but  to  His  temporary  abiding  place,  perhaps  a 
little  booth  or  tent,  perhaps  an  open  camp.  At  all 
events,  wherever  it  was,  when  Andrew  and  his 
companion  asked,  "Where  dwellest  Thou  ?"  or  bet- 
ter, "Where  abidest  Thou?"  our  Lord  answered, 
"Come  and  see."  So  they  followed  Him,  remained 
with  Him  all  night,  and  the  next  day  went  back 
with  Him  toward  Cana. 

This  reckoning  does  not  quite  fit  in  with  the 
story  of  the  Temptation  of  Christ,  which  the  other 
Gospels  place  after  the  Baptism,  and  before  the 
public  ministry.  So  it  is  more  possible  that  the 
first  day  mentioned  in  the  account  by  St.  John  is 
the  first  day  after  the  return  from  the  wilderness, 
our  Lord's  immediate  departure  after  His  baptism 
having  given  the  Baptist  no  opportunity  to  make 
a  testimony  to  Him.  Andrew  and  the  other, 
Simon  Peter  and  Philip,  were  all  disciples  of 
John,  and  all  from  the  same  town.     The  unnamed 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  3 

disciple  was  probably  St.  John  the  Evangelist.  It 
is  notable  that  St.  John  does  not  saj  that  our  Lord 
was  baptized  on  that  first  day,  but  only  that  John 
saw  Jesus  coming  to  him. 

Most  of  us  know  very  little  of  the  sort  of  life 
in  the  open  in  which  the  acquaintance  of  the  dis- 
ciples with  their  Lord  began.  It  is  a  very  inti- 
mate life ;  acquaintance  ripens  rapidly.  It  reveals 
our  Lord  as  extraordinarily  accessible,  ready  to 
share  anything  with  those  who  seriously  came  to 
Him.  In  the  after  days  of  His  ministry  He  not 
only  welcomed  people,  even  in  the  wilderness,  but 
He  is  not  recorded  as  refusing  entertainment  from 
anyone  offering  it,  and  yet  some  of  the  entertain- 
ment was  far  from  agreeable.  But  it  all  gave 
Him  an  opportunity,  and  it  gave  His  hosts  a  fur- 
ther opportunity,  to  hear  something  that  might 
change  the  current  of  their  lives. 

Hospitality  was  easier  then  than  it  now  is  in 
this  land  where  living  has  become  so  complicated. 
In  the  nature  of  things  one  would  suppose  that  the 
more  we  have  to  entertain  with,  the  easier  it  would 
be  to  entertain ;  whereas,  in  fact,  the  more  we  have, 
the  harder  it  is  finding  guests  to  fit  into  the  elab- 
orate surroundings  of  modern  housekeeping.  Hos- 
pitality is  a  virtue  that  is  actually  slipping  away 
from  us.  When  angels  came  to  Abraham  he  took 
them  in  as  a  matter  of  course.     But  we  would 


4  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

probably  advise  them  to  go  to  a  hotel.  For- 
tunately, this  virtue  lingers  in  the  rural  part  of 
our  land,  and  on  the  ranges  where  there  are  no 
hotels,  and  it  is  there  still  realized  that  "a  man^s 
life  consisteth  not  in  the  multitude  of  things  that 
he  possesseth.'' 

The  house  that  never  has  a  guest  becomes  the 
home  of  routine,  rather  than  of  humanity.  The 
guest  is  usually  not  wanted  because  he  would 
break  into  the  routine,  and  so  such  a  house  be- 
comes a  temple  of  selfishness.  It  does  us  actual 
good  to  have  to  change  our  arrangements,  and  do 
a  little  camping  in  our  own  homes,  that  we  may 
shelter  strangers  and  friends. 

For,  think  a  little.  If  Christ  should  come, 
would  you  think  it  possible  to  entertain  Him  ?  He 
certainly  would  come  to  you  if  you  asked  Him, 
and  bring  into  your  house  the  real  touch  of  home. 
But  if  you  thought  it  possible  to  entertain  Him, 
our  modern  customs  would  drive  you  almost  irre- 
sistibly to  serve  Him  in  Martha's  spirit  rather  than 
in  Mary's :  to  try  to  fit  Him  to  your  ways,  instead 
of  fitting  yourselves  to  Him. 

We  can  get  our  Lord's  idea  of  home  and  a  wel- 
come, from  various  things  He  says  in  the  Gospels. 
Here  is  His  widest  invitation:  "Come  unto  Me, 
all  ye  that  travail  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest/'     When  He  sent  His  disciples  to 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  5 

evangelize  Galilee  and  Judea,  He  told  them  to  go 
two  and  two,  and  when  they  came  to  a  house  to 
say  at  the  door,  "Peace  be  to  this  house,  and  to  all 
that  dwell  therein.''  So  a  home  ought  to  be  a 
place  of  peace,  as  well  as  of  rest.  A  house  ought 
not  to  be  "divided  against  itself.'' 

It  ought  to  be  full  of  the  acts  of  simple 
charity.  He  speaks  of  the  welcoming  kiss,  of  re- 
freshing water  to  drink  and  to  cool  the  feet,  of 
eating  "such  things  as  are  set  before  you,"  and  so 
of  quiet  contentment  with  plain  living. 

It  would  be  a  house  with  much  prayer,  or  our 
Saviour  Avould  have  to  leave  it  for  a  place  to  pray. 
Eeligion  would  begin  with  early  childhood,  for 
Christ  took  little  children  up  into  His  arms,  and 
blessed  them.  He  would  bring  Divine  healing 
and  comfort  if  there  were  sick  or  mourners;  He 
would  rejoice  to  be  with  us. 

Our  Saviour  speaks  of  so  many  of  the  details 
of  housekeeping  that  it  ought  not  to  be  hard  to 
think  of  Him  as  interested  in  all  the  things  we 
have  to  do;  the  lighting  the  candle,  sweeping  the 
house,  leavening  the  meal,  grinding  with  the  hand- 
mill.  Life  was  simple  then;  let  us  try  to  keep  it 
such  as  He  could  approve. 

Let  us  try  to  enter  into  our  Lord's  love  for  life 
in  the  open.  He  was  at  home  there.  "Consider 
the  lilies  of  the  field."     The  wild  flowers  can  help 


6  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

US  to  Christ.  Kemember  the  great  feast  He 
spread  on  the  green  grass.  He  spoke  of  the  spar- 
rows, the  ravens,  the  eagles,  the  mothering,  brood- 
ing hen.  He  loved  the  sheep,  the  shade  of  the 
olive  trees,  the  high  hills. 

And  then  let  us  try  to  draw  as  near  as  we  can 
to  Him  in  the  home  of  the  sanctuary,  bringing 
into  it  with  our  own  hands  all  fair  things  to  show 
our  love  for  Him,  and  to  remind  us  of  His  love 
for  us,  since  all  are  His  gifts.  Bring  the  flowers 
that  He  loved,  the  songs  that  He  approved,  the 
light  that  symbolizes  Him.  Think  of  all  His 
homes.  He  inhabiteth  eternity.  He  sitteth 
above  the  water  flood.  He  is  in  His  Holy  Temple. 
Yet  He  dwelleth  with  the  humble,  the  contrite, 
and  the  lowly ;  He  makes  His  home  in  the  purified 
heart.  The  door  of  His  house  is  always  open; 
let  us  open  to  Him  the  doors  of  our  heart. 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

II. — nathanael's  question. 

Whence  hnowest  Thou  me? — St.  John  1:48. 

ERY  little  is  known  about  !N^athanael; 
even  his  identification  with  Bartholo- 
mew adds  practically  nothing  to  our 
knowledge.  And  aside  from  that 
identification,  and  some  traditions,  of  whose  trust- 
worthiness we  really  cannot  pronounce  anything, 
we  have  just  two  mentions  in  the  Gospel  of  St. 
John.  One  is  in  the  immediate  context  we  have 
chosen  to  consider,  and  the  other  is  a  mention  in 
the  last  chapter  of  the  Gospel,  which  tells  us  that 
his  home  was  in  Cana  of  Galilee.  Cana  was  not 
very  far  from  iN'azareth,  and  its  people  had 
evidently  a  very  poor  opinion  of  ISTazareth.  This 
was  so  true  that  l^athanael  at  once  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  accept  any  one  from  such  a  place  and 
claiming  to  be  the  Messiah.  But  he  had  an  open 
mind,  and  was  willing  to  investigate. 

Coming  to  our  Lord  he  is  met  by  a  testimony 


8  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

to  his  character  which  is  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able ever  uttered  by  our  Master.  We  recall  no 
other  like  it.  "Behold  an  Israelite  indeed,  in 
whom  is  no  guile."  That  is,  E^athanael's  character 
was  free  from  all  that  made  the  character  of  the 
real  Israel  so  unlovely  at  first.  Jacob  made  his 
way  at  first  by  guile,  deceit.  He  deceived  Isaac, 
he  bargained  with  Esau,  he  was  too  sharp  for 
Laban.  Of  course  he  met  with  just  about  what  he 
dealt  in,  and,  fortunately  for  him,  became  at  last 
a  changed  man. 

I^athanael  began  his  association  with  our  Lord 
with  none  of  these  unlovely  traits  to  get  rid  of. 
He  had  no  guile,  and  he  must  have  been  therefore 
a  lovely  character,  full  of  a  knowledge  of  the 
Scriptures,  that  encouraged  our  Lord  to  speak  to 
him  words  which  would  have  been  mysterious  to 
anyone  who  had  not  thought  deeply  about  Jacob's 
life  and  call.  Christ  there  reveals  to  Nathanael 
that  the  Incarnation  is  the  true  Ladder  of  approach 
to  God,  the  true  source  of  the  ministry  of  angels. 
It  was  when  our  Lord  had  described  him  as  guile- 
less, a  saying  of  which  Nathanael  apparently 
heard  just  enough  to  be  sure  that  our  Lord  claimed 
to  know  him,  that  the  man  enquired,  "Whence 
knowest  Thou  me?" 

Our  Lord's  response  was  something  that  no 
one    but    Nathanael    himself    could    appreciate. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  9 

"Before  that  Philip  called  thee,  when  thou  wast 
under  the  fig  tree,  I  saw  thee."  E"athanael  had 
evidently  been  quite  alone  when  he  was  under 
the  fig  tree,  and  it  has  been  conjectured  that  he 
was  engaged  in  devotion;  for  he  recognizes  at 
once  the  wonderful  character  of  Christ's  knowledge 
of  him,  and  confesses  His  Messiahship  without 
further  delay. 

A  great  deal  has  been  written  and  enquired 
about  the  limitations  of  Christ's  knowledge  while 
He  was  here  on  earth.  That  there  was  some  limi- 
tation He  Himself  admitted,  but  there  were  signs 
enough  to  mark  His  knowledge  as  super-human, 
especially  in  His  discernment  of  character.  This 
was  not  confined  to  any  knowledge  specially 
born  of  sympathy  with  kindred  souls.  He  knew 
sinners  as  well  as  He  knew  saints,  and  He  knew 
the  inmost  recesses  of  being.  He  knew  Simon 
Peter  much  better  than  that  impulsive  character 
knew  himself;  and  as  to  Nathanael,  He  doubtless 
surprised  him  very  much  by  His  characterization. 

It  is,  however,  our  Lord's  claim  to  have 
knowledge  of  a  man's  most  private  moments  which 
is  the  subject  we  ought  most  to  look  at  here.  His 
answer  to  I^athanael  is  the  same  as  if  He  spoke 
to  us.  You,  too,  said  your  prayers  to-day.  You 
may  have  said  them  faithfully,  thoughtfully, 
humbly,    spiritually,    reverently,    earnestly,    just 


10  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

as  prayers  ought  to  be  said  for  a  blessing  to  fol- 
low. Or  it  may  have  been  formal  prayer,  per- 
functory, with  wandering  mind,  forgetful  half 
way  through  whether  you  had  begun  right  and 
were  proceeding  in  the  usual  way. 

The  point  is  this :  whether  you  were  attending 
or  not,  it  is  certain  that  Christ  was.  He  sees, 
He  knows.  He  realizes.  "All  things  are  naked  and 
open  before  Him  with  whom  we  have  to  do."  And 
this  does  not  merely  apply  to  prayer,  because  we 
have  merely  guessed  that  I^athanael  was  praying. 
It  applies  to  everything  else.  It  applies  to  all 
our  needs,  small  or  great.  Cana  was  a  little 
town,  Nathanael  was  not  a  widely  known  man; 
a  fig  tree  is  a  common  tree,  but  not  a  big  tree. 
NathanaeFs  affairs  were  probably  no  more  im- 
portant than  yours  or  mine,  and  mine  are  of  no 
great  consequence  to  anyone  but  myself. 

But  Christ  knew,  and,  further.  He  knew  in 
the  best  kind  of  way.  It  was  interested  knowledge. 
He  appreciated  the  man,  and  all  he  was,  and  all 
he  thought.  He  knew  his  difficulties  and  limita- 
tions; that  he  could  not  help  his  limitations,  but 
that  he  had  no  guile.  And  so  He  went  the  right 
way  to  work  to  bring  to  this  good  man  the  chance 
to  be  better,  the  chance  to  dedicate  his  sincerity, 
his  honesty,  his  spiritual  perception  to  the  right 
Master. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  11 

Could  the  Master  say  as  much  of  you  or  me 
as  He  did  of  Kathanael?  No  guile?  Go  back 
over  your  life,  and  test  it  by  Jacob's.  You  have 
had  a  father  and  mother.  You  have  had,  perhaps, 
brothers,  uncles;  perhaps  you  have  dealt  with 
your  family  in  a  business  way,  perhaps  only  with 
others.  We  don't  get  much  justice  in  family 
dealings  generally.  Partiality,  jealousy,  distrust 
are  apt  to  blind  us.  ^^Blood  is  thicker  than  water," 
as  the  proverb  says,  but  it  isn't  always  cleaner 
than  water.  The  main  question  is,  though.  Do 
you  really  think  you  are  square,  or  would  be 
square,  in  dealing  with  people  as  Jacob  dealt  with 
and  battled  with  them  by  his  wits?  for  he  was 
otherwise  not  a  fighting  man. 

Most  men  are  conscious  in  an  unwilling  way 
of  their  own  defects,  but  quite  willing  most  of 
the  time  to  forget  them.  And  sometimes  we  do 
succeed  for  so  long  in  forgetting  them  that  we  are 
shocked  when  we  again  discover  the  guile  lurking 
hidden  within  us;  what  is  picturesquely  called 
"the  yellow  streak." 

Now  all  the  time  Christ  knows,  and  all  the 
time  Christ  is  either  glad  or  sorry  about  us,  and 
all  the  time  anxious  to  make  us  true  Israelites, 
purging  away  the  guile,  and  bringing  us  into  com- 
munion with  Himself. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  when  Nathanael  asked. 


12  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

"Can  any  good  thing  come  out  of  I^azareth?" 
Philip  answered,  "Come  and  see."  Nathanael  was 
prejudiced,  but  he  was  unwilling  to  allow  his 
prejudice  to  prevent  him  from  giving  every  ques- 
tion fair  consideration.  He  went  to  see.  His 
going  brought  him  faith.  ISTow,  supposing  you 
have  never  fully  yielded  to  the  claims  of  Christ, 
have  you  ever  given  Him  His  chance  to  remove 
your  prejudices?  Whatever  they  are,  they  will 
be  met  and  banished  if  Christ  is  given  His  op- 
portunity. It  does  not  seem  to  matter  much  what 
our  prejudices  are,  as  long  as  we  can't  help  them 
and  are  honest.  Thomas  had  not  the  least  right 
to  say,  "I  will  not  believe"  except  upon  his  own 
conditions,  but  our  Lord  knew  that  Thomas  loved 
Him,  and  that  he  could  not  help  his  temperament ; 
so  He  gave  him  exactly  the  proof  that  he  asked 
for.  So  too  He  met  ^Nathanael's  difficulty  with 
evidence  which  was  all  that  could  be  asked.  Only 
ISTathanael  had  to  be  square,  and  Thomas  had  to 
be  square,  and  give  up  when  the  proof  came. 

It  is  not  uncommon  to  see  men  fight  strongly 
against  conviction,  against  Gospel  assurance,  as 
if  to  surrender  would  mean  defeat.  It  is  the  most 
glorious  kind  of  defeat.  It  ushers  us  into  life. 
It  brings  us  to  our  Heavenly  Father. 

l^ow  Christ  not  only  knows  us,  our  character, 
and  our  need,  but  He  knows  all  that  we  ought  to 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  13 

know.  He  has  the  Key  of  Knowledge,  He  has 
the  fulfilment  of  character.  To  be  fair  to  ourselves 
and  Him  is  just  to  begin  right.  But  we  need  long 
discipleship  before  we  are  complete.  Good  man  as 
l^athanael  was,  his  goodness  had  to  be  developed, 
applied,  consecrated,  completed,  and  he  himself 
made  absolutely  the  servant  of  God,  the  faithful 
apostle.  'No  present  belief  of  ours  that  we  are 
innocent  of  this  or  that  fault  ought  to  content  us, 
until  we  have  put  ourselves  wholly  in  the  Saviour's 
guidance.  He  sees  us,  but  He  wants  us  all  to  be 
worthy  to  see  Him,  to  see  the  full  meaning,  bless- 
ing and  salvation  of  the  Incarnation;  "to  see 
heaven  opened,  and  the  angels  of  God  ascending 
and  descending  upon  the  Son  of  Man." 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

III. THE    HOSTILE    JEWS. 

What  sign  showest  Thou  unto  us,  seeing   that  Thou 
doest  these  things? — St.  John  2:18. 

I  HIS  question  is  the  first  note  of  oppo- 
sition encountered  by  our  Lord  in  His 
public  ministry,  and  it  was  an  oppo- 
sition that  never  wavered  until  it  had 
killed  Him.  The  temple  in  Jerusalem,  Herod's 
temple  so  called,  was  wonderful  and  glorious. 
There  was  no  break  in  the  round  of  its  services, 
and  it  was  thronged  with  worshippers. 

But  there  was  a  business  side  to  it,  and  the 
chiefs  in  authority  had  an  eye  to  this  business 
side,  and  profited  greatly  by  it.  They  allowed 
small  hawkers  to  invade  the  temple  courts  to  sell 
there  the  doves  for  the  sacrifices,  and  even  the 
sellers  of  the  larger  sacrificial  animals,  sheep  and 
oxen;  and  they  allowed  the  money-changers  to 
set  up  their  tables,  so  that  foreign  money  could 
be  changed  for  the  legal  coinage  of  the  sanctuary. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  15 

Of  course  there  was  a  profit  on  all  this,  and  if  we 
look  ahead  at  our  Lord's  words  at  the  second 
cleansing  of  the  temple,  we  see  that  the  profit  was 
not  always  honest.  But  our  Lord  says  nothing 
of  that  at  this  time.  He  simply  expressed  the 
offense  of  turning  the  Temple  of  God,  God's 
house,  into  a  house  of  merchandise,  a  shop. 

It  is  noticeable  that,  though  our  Lord  had  no 
other  weapon  than  "a  whip  of  small  cords,"  He 
had  no  real  resistance  from  anyone  of  these  in- 
truders. He  was  entirely  successful  for  the  mo- 
ment in  getting  rid  of  them,  so  that  they  must  have 
known  that  they  had  no  business  there.  "'Tis  con- 
science makes  cowards  of  us  all."  The  opposition 
came  from  the  Jews,  probably  from  the  official 
class,  those  really  responsible,  and  this  made  its 
importance.  When  they  asked  the  Lord  for  a 
sign,  they  had  not  yet  fully  determined  to  reject 
Him,  for  they  still  thought  they  might  find  His 
ministry  useful  to  their  plans. 

But  our  Lord's  answer  was  of  a  sort  that  would 
have  been  useless  to  anyone  with  their  unspiritual 
views.  His  answer  was,  "Destroy  this  temple,  and 
in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up."  And  the 
Evangelist's  comment  is,  "He  spake  of  the  Temple 
of  His  Body."  The  words  spoken  were  remem- 
bered by  the  Jews  as  if  they  were  an  attack  on  the 
temple.    This  thought  was  still  in  their  minds  when 


16  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

Stephen  was  tried,  for  the  witnesses  then  said,  ''We 
have  heard  him  say  that  Jesus  of  l^azareth  shall 
destroy  this  place,  and  change  the  customs  Avhich 
Moses  delivered  us."  Truth  cannot  come  into  a 
hostile  mind ;  it  hears  things  warped  and  distorted. 

The  Jews  answered  our  Lord,  ''Forty  and  six 
years  was  this  temple  in  building,  and  wilt  Thou 
raise  it  up  in  three  days  ?"  This  exclamation  our 
Lord  did  not  answer.  'No  answer  could  have  been 
given;  though  doubtless  He  would  have  told  them 
all  they  could  have  understood.  This  was  His 
method.  He  never  denied  explanation  to  those  who 
were  entitled  to  know  because  able  to  understand. 

Our  Lord's  answer  to  the  request  for  signs 
was,  hence,  different  in  different  cases.  To  these 
Jews  it  was  an  enigmatic  answer.  But  to  John's 
disciples,  asking  religiously,  asking  by  authority 
of  John  himself,  who  nevertheless  sent  to  enquire, 
we  may  believe,  more  on  their  account  than  on 
his  own,  our  Lord  gave  the  signs  which  would  be 
plain  to  a  student  of  prophecy,  to  a  spiritually 
minded  man  able  to  read  "the  signs  of  the  times." 
"Go  your  way  and  tell  John  what  things  ye  have 
seen  and  heard:  how  that  the  blind  see,  the  lame 
walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  the  deaf  hear,  the 
dead  are  raised  up,  to  the  poor  the  Gospel  is 
preached.  And  blessed  is  he,  whosoever  shall  not 
be  offended  in  Me." 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  17 

The  order  of  these  signs  is  reniarkable.  In 
every  rhetorical  judgment  of  good  writing,  it 
would  be  taken  that  the  last  of  them  was  con- 
sidered by  our  Lord  as  the  most  important.  That 
the  poor  should  find  a  helper  and  sympathizer,  that 
the  Kingdom  should  be  preached  to  them  brought 
in  a  marvel  of  marvels,  a  change  affecting,  not 
this  or  that  dead  man,  but  the  whole  world  of  men 
and  ideas.  It  was  the  moral  miracle  that  was  the 
most  important,  and  in  that  sense,  at  least,  there 
is  no  reason  why  we  should  think  that  miracles 
have  ceased. 

The  miracle  to  which  Christ  mysteriously  re- 
ferred in  His  answer  to  the  Jews,  the  miracle  of 
the  Resurrection,  is  considered  the  central  fact  of 
the  Gospel.  "If  Christ  be  not  raised,  then  is  our 
preaching  in  vain.  Your  faith  is  also  vain."  It 
was  sufficient  for  thousands  at  the  first  preaching 
of  it;  it  has  sufficed  for  all  true  Christians  since. 
But  it  did  not  satisfy  many  of  those  who  must 
have  had  just  as  much  evidence  of  it  as  those  who 
did  believe.  It  did  not  convert  some  who  were 
at  pains  to  invent  a  lie  to  explain  it  away.  Truly, 
faith  is  greater  than  knowledge,  and  the  knowledge 
of  a  sacred  fact  cannot  save  us  from  our  sins,  if 
we  cling  to  our  sin  by  choice. 

The  evidence  of  Christianity  does  not  get  less 
as  time  goes  on.     The  sifting  of  documents  has 


18  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

now  gone  its  fullest  possible  length,  and  we  have 
all  sorts  of  expert  testimony  to  the  genuineness 
of  our  records.  The  beauty  of  the  Christ,  the 
perfection  of  His  life  continues  unique.  The  ages 
of  enlightment  have  brought  nothing  forward  to 
supersede  it.  Modern  science  heaps  up  detailed 
illustrations  of  the  sacred  facts,  of  their  credibility, 
of  the  truth  and  strength  and  importance  of  the 
unseen. 

But  none  of  the  testimony  is  of  any  value  to 
a  heart  which  does  not  wish  to  believe,  to  a  mind 
intent  to  have  things  its  own  way.  Those  who 
seem  to  find  the  difficulties  of  faith  too  strong 
ought  to  examine  into  their  hearts  for  the  source 
of  their  preconceptions.  Why  is  faith  easy  for 
me,  and  hard,  perhaps,  for  another  ?  Have  I  per- 
haps less  intelligence,  or  has  he  ?  Is  not  humility 
the  necessary  approach  to  the  study  of  any  subject  ? 
And  may  not  some  pride  of  opinion  be  destructive 
of  any  possibility  of  really  learning?  Hlustra- 
tions  of  this  could  be  found  in  the  history  of 
science  as  well  as  religion. 

Or,  it  would  be  perhaps  useful  for  the  man 
who  is  hesitating  to  look  around  at  his  companions. 
The  honest  doubter  must  shudder  ofttimes  when 
he  finds  himself  in  the  ranks  of  the  opponents  of 
Christ.  For  these  opposers  include  and  marshal 
hostilely  against  the  Master  the  proud,  the  envious, 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  19 

the  covetous,  the  violent,  the  unclean,  the  cruel, 
the  wilfully  ignorant.  No  one  denies  that  there 
are  honest  doubters.  But  they  certainly  cannot 
doubt  that  Christ  came  to  advance  "whatsoever 
things  are  true,  pure,  lovely  and  of  good  report," 
and  that,  allowing  for  all  the  evil  in  the  Church, 
it  continues  to  be  "the  blessed  company  of  all 
faithful  people,''  the  "Communion  of  Saints." 

What  is  shown  in  the  text  in  conflict  with 
Christ  is  described  by  its  modern  name  of  "graft." 
Graft  creeps  in  everywhere.  It  would  rule  the 
Church  if  it  could,  as  well  as  the  legislatures  and 
society.  It  does  not  believe  in  virtue  when  it  sees 
it,  or  that  the  good  is  the  holy.  It  not  only  disbe- 
lieves in  virtue,  but  it  hates  it.  The  Jews  hated 
Christ,  and  disbelieved  in  Him  chiefly  because 
they  hated  Him.  His  principles  rendered  the 
supremacy  of  formalists,  or  worldlings,  impossible. 
The  behavior  of  such  people  is  governed,  not  by 
right,  but  by  expediency.  "It  is  expedient  that 
one  man  shall  die  for  the  people,"  or  else  "the 
Romans  will  come  and  take  away  our  place  and 
our  nation."     We  shall  lose  our  advantages. 

It  would  seem  to  me,  considering  all  Christi- 
anity has  been  able  to  do  for  the  world  through 
such  faithfulness  to  her  Master's  teaching  as  she 
has  been  able  to  arise  to,  that  any  thoughtful  man, 
who  may  yet  have  some  lingering  doubts  of  dog- 


20  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

matic  details  in  Christianity,  must  feel  that  he 
would  rather  die  with  Christ  than  live  with  the 
opponents  of  the  Cross. 

And  there  is  this  last  best  thing  in  the  matter 
of  evidence:  that  no  one  who  has  ever  made  the 
great  surrender,  and  tried  Christ  for  His  Friend 
and  Leader,  has  ever  been  disappointed.  The 
answers  cease  to  be  enigmatic  and  dark  when  we 
get  into  His  fellowship.  We  get  to  know  of  the 
doctrine,  because  we  prove  God's  will  in  daily 
life.  We  know  answers  to  religious  questions  in 
the  long  run  just  as  we  know  them  to  our  other 
problems.  When  the  answer  is  right  it  just  fits 
in.  Just  as  food  is  food  because  it  does  the  work 
of  food,  so  Christ  is  Christ  because  He  is  the 
Bread  of  Life.  He  is  the  Answer,  the  Satisfac- 
tion of  the  heart.  And  there  has  never  been  any 
other.  Every  one  knows  perfectly  well  that  it 
isn't  a  question  of  Christ  or  Buddha,  of  Christ  or 
Plato,  of  Christ  or  Mahomet — it  is  Christ  or 
nobody.  And  that  there  should  be  no  answer  to 
the  heart  in  a  rational  world  is  just  simply  un- 
thinkable. 

Let  us  then  seek  Christ  in  a  purified  temple 
with  purified  lives.  It  will  lead  us  on  not  only  to 
know  that  Ho  is  raised,  but  to  have  the  power 
of  His  resurrection  in  ourselves. 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

IV. NICODEMUS'     QUESTION. 

How  can  these  things  he? — St.  John  3:  9. 

HIS  was  the  question  of  a  thoughtful 
man  who  was  interested  in  truth,  and 
was  much  impressed  with  Christ.  But 
it  shows  that  we  create  some  of  our 
own  difficulties.  Nicodemus  was  a  Pharisee,  but 
an  earnest  Pharisee.  He  was  a  man  of  culture  and 
position.  That  position  had  won  him  respect  and 
deference.  He  valued  his  position,  and  was  afraid 
to  do  anything  to  hurt  the  esteem  in  which  he  was 
publicly  held.  So,  in  his  caution,  he  "came  to 
Jesus  by  night.''  That  he  came  to  put  himself 
under  instruction  is  clear  from  the  fact  that  our 
Lord  begins  at  once  to  teach;  and  that  our  Lord 
understood  him  perfectly  is  made  plain  by  the 
other  fact,  that  the  first  words  of  instruction  went 
absolutely  to  the  bottom  of  things,  and  practically 
overthrew  all  of  Kicodemus'  idea  of  any  progress 
that  he  might  seem  already  to  have  made. 


22  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

It  is  very  hard  for  a  man  in  the  position  of 
Nicodemus  not  to  feel  and  act  toward  truth  in  a 
patronizing  manner,  not  to  regard  himself  as  of 
rather  too  much  consequence,  and  not  to  think  that 
truth  ought  to  satisfy  him,  instead  of  trying  to 
satisfy  the  truth  himself.  Our  Lord  begins  at 
once  "to  teach  with  authority,"  since  Nicodemus 
has  confessed  that  He  is  a  "Teacher  come  from 
God.''  And  the  first  statement  of  our  Lord  is  of 
the  necessity  and  manner  of  the  New  Birth.  Both 
are  involved  in  being  "born  again,"  for  the  text 
has  a  double  translation.  It  means,  as  well, 
"born  from  above." 

Nicodemus  is  very  much  astonished,  and  gives 
some  signs  of  wishing  to  argue  the  matter.  While 
our  Lord  is  not  teaching  "as  the  Scribes,"  Nico- 
demus  is  listening  in  their  manner.  And  he  asks, 
"How  can  a  man  be  born  again  when  he  is  old?" 
"Can  natural  birth  be  repeated?"  But  our  Lord 
shows  him  that,  though  natural  birth  could  be  re- 
peated, it  would  just  bring  us  back  to  where  we 
already  are.  We  want  something  different:  to  be 
"born  of  Water  and  the  Spirit."  Or  else  we 
"cannot  see,"  which  must  also  mean  understand 
and  appreciate,  "the  Kingdom  of  God."  We 
cannot  enter  into  the  spiritual  life  without  this 
New  Birth.     Any  life  has  to  be  begun  by  birth. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  23 

"Marvel  not  that  I  said  unto  thee,  ye  must  be 
born  again." 

Then  Nicodemus  shows  that  he  has  never 
thought  about  such  things  before;  for  he  asks, 
"How  can  these  things  be  ?"  Our  Lord  practically, 
though  not  unkindly,  shows  him  that,  though 
holding  the  place  of  a  teacher  in  Israel,  Nicode- 
mus  hasn't  the  least  idea  of  the  essence  of  things. 
He  presses  home  upon  His  visitor  the  fact  that  the 
world  and  life  are  full  of  mysteries,  and  that  re- 
ligion must  necessarily  have  mysteries  of  its  own, 
though  they  are  like  other  mysteries,  because  they 
come  from  the  same  God. 

There  is  no  way  of  finding  these  deeper  things 
out  without  a  revelation,  and  we  will  not  be  likely 
to  accept  a  revelation  if  we  have  too  deeply  rooted 
ideas  and  prejudices  as  to  what  it  ought  to  be, 
and  have  minds  closed  to  the  beauty  and  mystery 
of  the  things  around  us.  "If  I  have  told  you 
earthly  things,"  like  the  wonder  of  the  winds,  "and 
ye  believe  not,  how  shall  ye  believe  if  I  tell  you 
of  heavenly  things?"  And  besides,  there  is  no- 
body else  to  tell  of  heavenly  things.  Xobody  has 
ever  been  in  heaven  but  the  pre-existent  Word,  the 
Son  of  God  who  is  now  Son  of  Man.  There  is  no 
safe  message  that  He  does  not  send  or  bring. 

That  this  doctrine  changed  the  first  attitude 
of  I^icodemus  is  plain  from  the  way  in  which 


24  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

Christ  went  on  to  tell  of  His  own  uplifting,  like 
"the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,"  of  Himself  as  the 
object  of  faith,  and  of  the  Gift  of  God's  redeeming 
love,  of  the  great  condemnation  which  should  con- 
sist in  refusing  the  light  of  this  new  truth,  the 
Light  of  the  Avorld. 

Nicodemus  after  this  interview  gradually 
grew  in  courage  and  faith.  He  once  raised  his 
voice  in  defence  of  Christ,  or  in  deprecation  of  a 
hasty  judgment  upon  Him  by  the  chiefs  of  the 
nation.  And  when  the  Lord  was  dead,  he  and 
Joseph  of  Arimathea,  another  great  man,  buried 
Him. 

There  is  only  time  now  to  touch  on  the  first 
part  of  our  Lord's  answer  to  Nicodemus,  the 
necessity  of  the  new  birth.  It  isn't  in  man  to  like 
necessity  when  it  is  laid  upon  him.  But  we  have 
learned  not  to  quarrel  with  the  necessity  of  natural 
birth.  There  is  no  other  way  to  come  into  life, 
than  through  the  travail  of  another.  And  when 
we  are  born  we  are  always  children;  we  can't 
grow  up  in  a  day ;  we  can't  take  immediate  care 
of  ourselves ;  we  do  not  know  of  ourselves  what  is 
best  for  us ;  we  must  be  sheltered,  guided,  fed,  and 
taught  until  "the  time  appointed  of  the  Father." 

So  our  Lord  does  not  give  many  sources  of 
spiritual  life,  or  suggest  the  occasional  necessity 
of  a  new  birth,  or  that  only  a  few  need  it ;  but  He 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  25 

says  that  everyone  who  would  enter  into  the  new 
Kingdom,  who  would  escape  from  bondage,  who 
would  conquer  the  flesh,  who  would  obey  the  light 
must  be  born  again,  bom  from  above.  He  must 
become  a  child  all  over  again;  be  humble,  simple, 
obedient,  dependent,  bide  his  time,  yield  to  the 
discipline  provided.  He  must  "become  a  fool  that 
he  may  become  wise,"  for  the  wisdom  of  the  world 
will  only  stand  in  the  way  of  his  learning  any- 
thing; so  much  of  it  is  absolutely  false. 

]^ot  but  what  this  necessity  for  a  complete  and 
humble  and  fundamental  new  beginning  can  be 
illustrated  many  times  from  things  in  the  world. 
There  is  nothing  unreasonable  at  all  in  Christ's 
position.  And  the  further  a  man  goes  up  toward 
the  top  of  society,  the  more  illustrations  we  can 
get.  Suppose  a  boy  has  taken  the  first  honor  at 
the  local  High  School,  delivered  the  valedictory, 
and  passed  out  of  the  school-doors  with  applause, 
and  then  receives  an  appointment  to  West  Point; 
what,  and  how,  is  he  regarded  after  he  gets  there  ? 
As  anyone  in  particular  ?  ^o,  just  as  a  beginner, 
who  needs  to  forget  that  he  ever  knew  anything, 
or  was  honored,  or  graduated.  He  is  a  new  cadet, 
"a  high  private  in  the  rear  rank."  He  has  entered 
into  another  world  with  a  new  code,  new  methods 
of  study,  new  traditions. 

^ow  after  four  years  let  him  graduate  from 


26  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

the  Academy  as  honorably  as  he  did  from  the 
High  School,  and  then  what  ?  He  has  to  begin  all 
over  again  to  be  the  junior  Second  Lieutenant. 
He  must  not  volunteer  too  much  of  his  knowledge 
in  a  world  of  superiors.  But  these  are  only  partial 
illustrations,  because,  in  these  cases,  the  man  does 
know  something  after  all,  and  only  needs  adjust- 
ment, humility,  and  patience,  to  come  into  his 
own.  But  suppose  a  man  of  literary  culture,  but 
no  scientific  training,  determines  to  learn  some- 
thing of  science,  how  does  he  begin?  Why, 
nowhere  but  at  the  beginning! 

Every  science  has  foundations.  You  can't 
begin  up  in  the  air.  These  funny  modern  sky- 
scrapers, where  they  seem  to  put  in  the  tenth 
story  first,  are  no  real  exception,  for  the  building 
is  really  carried  on  the  steel  frame.  There  is  no 
royal  road  to  anything  but  the  way  of  hard,  careful 
work.  And  it  is  true  of  every  science,  every  art, 
every  business,  as  well  as  of  our  relations  to  God, 
that  "he  that  humbleth  himself  shall  be  exalted.'' 

The  Church  interprets  our  Lord's  words  about 
the  l^ew  Birth  as  bearing  closely  upon  Holy 
Baptism.  The  little  babe  is  brought  to  the  church, 
and  we  are  asked  to  make  him  a  member  of  that 
heavenly  society,  and  we  baptize  him.  A  great 
general,  like  General  Grant,  in  his  last  days  seeks 
a  new  life,  a  new  relation  to  God.    He  is  baptized. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  27 

A  President  of  the  United  States  retires  to  private 
life  after  marvellous  experiences  and  responsibili- 
ties, and  thinks  of  heaven.  He  is  baptized.  And 
in  some  way  the  wisdom  of  the  world  is  piqued, 
and  says,  How  can  you  possibly  attribute  spiritual 
results  to  such  a  simple  ceremony  ? 

Well,  why  not?  Why  does  the  apple  fall? 
Why  doesn't  it  rise  ?  Why  does  our  food  nourish 
us  ?  Why  doesn't  it  choke  us  ?  Why  does  a  little 
extra  heat  over  the  gulf  of  Mexico  cause  a  Texas 
storm  ?  Why  is  anything  simple  ?  Or  who  under- 
stands simplicity  ?  Let  us  go  back  to  the  servants 
of  E^aaman  for  sensible  views.  "My  father,  if 
the  prophet  had  bidden  thee  do  some  great  thing, 
wouldest  thou  not  have  done  it?  How  much 
rather  when  he  saith  unto  thee,  wash  and  be 
clean?" 

It  should  not  be  opposition,  but  gratitude,  that 
is  aroused  when  we  find  that  the  Sacrament  of  the 
'New  Birth  is  so  easy  outwardly.  It  cannot  be 
easy  inwardly,  after  a  man  is  old.  It  is  only  "the 
broken  and  contrite  heart"  that  "God  will  not 
despise,"  that  is  able  to  receive  the  birth  of  the 
Spirit.  Why  God  has  linked  things  as  He  has  is 
not  for  us  to  say;  but  that  He  has  done  so,  and 
simply  provided  means  for  all  of  us  to  draw  nigh, 
we  must  believe ;  for  it  is  His  Son  who  tells  us  of 
heavenly  things. 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

V. A    WOMAN^S    QUESTION. 

Sir,  Thou  hast  nothing  to  draw  with,  and  the  well 
is  deep;  from  whence  then  hast  Thou  that  living 
Water?— ^t  John  4:11. 


ROBABLY  no  more  interesting  relig- 
ious conversation  was  ever  held  than 
that  between  our  Lord  and  the  woman 
of  Samaria.  It  is  greatly  to  our  re- 
joicing and  profit  that  He  should  have  been  willing 
to  talk  with  her,  and  the  narrative  offers  us  a  great 
study  in  making  a  spiritual  approach.  It  is  a 
wonderful  picture.  Here  is  Jacob's  well  outside 
the  little  town.  The  wayfarers  have  come  along, 
and  one,  wearied  by  long  walking,  is  left  sitting 
and  resting  by  the  side  of  the  well,  while  the  others 
go  on  into  the  town  to  buy  food.  The  woman 
comes  out  to  the  well  alone,  carrying  her  earthen 
water- jar.  She  has  probably  filled  it  in  silence, 
and  is  ready  to  go  back  to  the  little  city,  when 
the  stranger  Jew  asks  her  for  a  drink.  The  in- 
terest of  the  story  leaps  at  once  to  higher  meanings. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  29 

and  the  drink  is  lost  sight  of.  Did  He  get  it,  or 
didn't  He  ? 

One  inclines  to  wish  that  the  woman  maj  have 
been  a  little  kinder  than  her  answer,  and  that  she 
may  have  put  her  first  question  while  she  was  low- 
ering the  jar  so  the  stranger  could  refresh  Himsell:. 
But  His  real  thirst  was  for  souls.  ''How  is  it," 
said  she,  "that  Thou,  being  a  Jew,  askest  drink 
of  me,  which  am  a  woman  of  Samaria  ?"  ''The 
Jews,"  it  is  explained,  "have  no  dealings  with  the 
Samaritans."  But  something  in  our  Lord's  re- 
sponse to  this  may  indicate  that  the  woman  meant 
to  refuse  Him,  at  least  at  first.  "If  thou  knewesL 
the  gift  of  God,  and  who  it  is  that  saith  to  thee, 
give  Me  to  drink,  thou  wouldest  have  asked  of 
Him,  and  He  would  have  given  thee  living  water." 
Perhaps  the  words  "He  would  have  given  thee" 
are  meant  to  contrast  Christ's  willingness  with 
the  woman's  unwillingness.  But  from  this  time 
on  her  interest  is  fully  aroused.  "Sir,"  she  says, 
"Thou  hast  nothing  to  draw  with,  and  the  well  is 
deep:  from  whence  then  hast  Thou  that  living 
water  ?"  Was  she  ironical  in  going  on  to  ask,  "Art 
Thou  greater  than  our  Father  Jacob  ?"  or  did  she 
really  begin  to  feel  the  wonder  of  Christ's  Person  ? 

You  all  know  the  difference  between  what  we 
call  living  water,  and  dead,  or  stagnant,  water.  A 
white  rapid,  or  a  bubbling  spring  would  be  living 


30  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

water  in  our  sense,  but  not  in  Christ's.  No  matter 
how  cool,  how  pure,  how  light  are  the  waters  of 
earth,  no  matter  how  freely  we  drink  of  them, 
thirst  returns.  But  he  who  has  drunk  of  the  true 
living  water  has  the  fountain  in  himself,  a  spring- 
ing well,  "springing  up  into  everlasting  life.'' 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  this  woman,  to  whom 
water  drawing  from  outside  of  the  city  was  part 
of  her  daily  drudgery,  should  exclaim,  "Sir,  give 
me  this  water  that  I  thirst  not,  neither  come  hither 
to  draw?"  But  what  are  the  next  words  of 
Christ  ?  "Go,  call  thy  husband,  and  come  hither." 
The  woman  replied,  "I  have  no  husband."  We 
cannot  catch  her  tone  exactly.  But  our  Lord  shows 
instantly  His  perfect  knowledge  of  her  past  life, 
as  well  as  her  then  present  relationships,  by  say- 
ing, "Thou  hast  well  said,  I  have  no  husband: 
for  thou  hast  had  five  husbands,  and  he  whom 
thou  now  hast  is  not  thy  husband.  In  that  saidst 
thou  truly."  This  was  most  unexpected  to  the 
woman,  who  first  tried  to  hide  her  confusion  by 
saying,  "Sir,  I  perceive  that  Thou  art  a  prophet," 
and  then  to  turn  the  conversation  to  another  less 
pressing  topic  by  raising  the  question  as  to  which 
were  right,  the  Jews  or  the  Samaritans,  in  the 
place  they  had  chosen  for  their  worship. 

But  our  Lord  would  not  be  denied  in  carrying 
the  conversation  to  its  proper  end,  that  He  might 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  31 

lift  the  woman's  soul  to  a  realization  of  God  as 
Spirit,  and  of  worship  as  spiritual  and  possible 
everywhere.  The  Father  was  seeking  for  the 
worship  of  His  children.  Our  Saviour,  in  His 
Father's  Name,  and  in  His  own  great  weariness, 
had  come  to  seek  and  to  save  her.  So  by  God's 
mercy,  this  woman  who  had  not  been  a  good 
woman,  who  wasn't  a  good  woman  when  she  came 
out  to  the  well,  was  transformed,  as  one  of  the 
first  fruits  of  the  Gospel,  into  an  obedient  servant 
and  messenger.  She  went  away  to  the  city,  told 
her  story  to  the  men,  and  brought  many  to  the 
hearing  of  Christ's  wonderful  words,  and  to  faith 
in  Him. 

The  first  step  in  her  conversion  was  asking 
her  to  do  a  kind  thing  which  was  quite  within  her 
powers.  Even  if  that  should  not  succeed,  it,  at 
least,  would  have  made  her  think  whether  she 
ought  not  to  do  it.  We  must,  if  we  take  this 
example,  allow  even  bad  people  to  do  as  much 
good  as  they  can,  and  willingly  make  ourselves 
their  debtors.  The  story  is  a  great  comfort  and 
inspiration  to  us. 

But  does  it  not  raise  the  question,  why  the 
Church  in  her  ordinary  organizations  seems  to  do 
so  little  work  with  people  like  this  woman,  who 
need  the  Gospel  so  much.  You  see  pleasing  her- 
self had  still  left  her  a  drudge.    Sin  is  never  kind 


32  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

to  its  votaries.  May  we  not  be  caring  too  much 
for  our  reputations,  and  too  little  for  sinners  i 
And  may  not  our  effectiveness  be  so  small,  not 
only  because  we  are  so  slow  to  begin  such  work, 
but  are  also  slow  to  make  quick  enough  use  of  our 
converts  in  extending  it  ?  Who  are  converting  the 
Chinese  now?  Chinamen,  who  have  been  them- 
selves converted  to  Christ.  Who  make  rescue  work 
successful,  where  men  are  consecrated  enough  to 
undertake  it  ?  Rescued  men  and  women.  They 
can  do  it,  because,  having  been  forgiven  much, 
and  loving  much,  they  can  speak  of  love  and  for- 
giveness.    But  do  w^e  love  at  all  ? 

When  one  compares  the  beautifid  cathedrals  of 
England  with  those  on  the  continent  of  Europe, 
one  notices  that,  while  they  are  perhaps  not  so 
large  and  not  so  high,  they  are  not  less  beautifully 
proportioned,  and  even  more  artistically  finished 
in  some  of  their  details.  But  they  have  so  little 
color  in  them.  The  great  English  churches  once 
had  a  great  deal  of  color.  But  the  painted  glass 
was  an  offense  to  some  of  our  Puritan  forefathers, 
and  they  broke  it,  and  then  they  whitewashed  the 
pictured  walls  to  hide  the  saints  and  angels  painted 
there.  Perhaps  there  were  some  things  depicted 
there  liable  to  superstitious  use,  that  it  was  just 
as  well  to  banish,  but  the  coldness  of  the  result 
calls  aloud  for  color. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  33 

In  a  world  of  green  and  blue,  of  red  and  gold, 
of  orange  and  purple,  of  lilies  and  roses,  of  violets 
and  anemones,  where  God  has  set  the  temple  of 
His  holiness  among  the  shining  stars,  it  cannot  be 
in  anyway  complete  to  have  a  cold,  pale,  flat  or 
formal  religion.  The  water  of  life  is  sparkling 
water,  full  of  vigor  and  refreshment,  full  of  joy 
and  energy.  If  you  want  to  begin  to  feel  what 
this  sparkle  and  bubbling  life  is,  O  man,  O  woman. 
Go,  call  thy  husband,  friend,  brother  to  enjoy  it 
with  you,  and  quaff  grace  in  sharing  it.  Our 
Lord  was  really  giving  it  to  the  woman  of  Samaria 
when  He  was  sending  her  as  His  messenger. 

One  would  like  very  much  to  know  what 
became  of  that  woman  of  the  well-side.  Of  course 
we  do  not  really  need  to  know,  or  we  would  have 
been  told.  We  know  a  good  deal  of  other  women 
who  learned  of  Christ.  Mary  Magdalene  had  been 
a  far  worse  woman  than  this  one,  and  yet  Mary 
became  a  great  saint,  for  she  loved  much.  When 
our  Lord  says  to  a  social  outcast,  ^^Go,  and  sin  no 
more,"  He  gives  a  hope  as  well  as  a  command,  and 
strength  to  fulfil  the  command. 

If  the  woman  had  to  go  on  with  her  daily 
tasks,  drawing  water  at  Jacob's  well  day  after  day, 
we  may  still  surely  hope  that  she  tried  to  live  as 
our  Saviour  had  taught  her,  and  to  worship  "in 
Spirit  and  in  truth."     And  surely,  too,  the  old 


34  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

drudgery  must  have  been  lightened  by  the  new 
gift  of  grace.  Drinking  of  the  living  water,  we 
may  rest  even  while  we  work. 

In  that  wonderful  English  romance,  John 
Inglesant,  there  occurs  an  epitaph  on  a  country 
clergyman  which  one  may  believe  is  not  part  of 
the  fiction  in  that  beautiful  tale.  It  records  that 
he  was  "full  of  cares  and  full  of  years.  Of  neither 
weary,  but  full  of  hope  and  of  heaven."  This 
would  well  describe  a  life  lived  in  the  refreshment 
which  our  Master  bestows,  the  gift  of  the  fountain 
within  us,  "springing  up  into  everlasting  life." 

"Blessed  are  they  who  hunger  and  thirst  after 
righteousness,  for  they  shall  be  filled." 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

VI. FAITH    IS    WORK. 

What  shall  we  do  that  we  might  work  the  works  of  Ood? 
St.  John  6:28. 

UR  Lord's  discourse  in  the  Synagogue 
at  Capernaum,  with  His  revelation  of 
Himself  as  the  Bread  of  Life,  cannot 
be  taken  out  of  connection  with  His 
feeding  the  five  thousand  in  the  wilderness  belong- 
ing to  Bethsaida.  The  miracle  had  immeasurably 
astonished  everybody.  It  had  convinced  the 
beholders  that  Jesus  was  "that  prophet"  that 
should  come  into  the  world,  the  one  prophesied  by 
Moses  who  should  resemble  him.  If  our  Lord  had 
chosen  to  go  the  path  of  popularity,  the  way  the 
people  wanted  Him  to  lead  them,  the  path  was 
then  immediately  open  to  Him.  The  people  would 
have  made  Him  a  king.  Instead  of  allowing  this. 
He  slipped  away  quietly,  and  returned  to  Caper- 
naum, and  the  people  found  Him  in  the  Syna- 
gogue.    He  had  hidden  His   escape  by  another 


36  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

wonderful  deed  known  only  to  His  disciples,  so 
that  the  people  could  not  imagine  how  He  came, 
nor  did  He  try  to  enlighten  them. 

He  takes  up  immediately  the  spiritual  meaning 
of  His  miracle,  and  tells  them  that  their  reasons 
for  seeking  Him  were  quite  unsatisfactory.  They 
were  not  interested  in  the  matter  of  His  preaching, 
but  they  thought  a  person  with  such  wonderful 
powers  could  be  a  great  reliance  to  them.  They 
did  not  have  their  eyes  raised  any  higher  than  the 
betterment  of  their  condition ;  there  was  no  thought 
of  spiritual  support.  So  our  Lord  urges  them  to 
lift  their  eyes  higher.  But  they  can  only  think  for 
the  moment  how  desirable  it  would  be  to  be  able 
to  work  miracles  themselves,  so  they  ask,  ^'What 
shall  we  do  that  we  may  work  the  works  of  God  ?" 

Our  Lord  replies  that  the  beginning  of  any 
advance,  of  any  achievement,  would  have  to  be 
faith  in  Him.  "This  is  the  work  of  God  that  ye 
believe  on  Him  whom  He  hath  sent."  Faith  is  not 
the  slight  thing  some  people  might  suppose,  it  is 
not  merely  assent.  The  admission  that  Christ  was 
a  great  prophet  did  not  help  towards  it;  it  was 
rather  in  the  way.  Faith  is  so  difficult,  that  the 
Scripture  always  treats  it  as  God's  work  in  us. 
And  it  is  of  more  consequence  than  anything  else 
we  can  possibly  attain  to.  The  Jews  respond  by 
asking  for  "a  sign."     Thoy  had  evidently  seen  a 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  37 

connection  between  the  miraculous  feeding  just  ac- 
complished, and  the  gift  of  Manna  to  their  fore- 
fathers in  the  wilderness. 

But  the  likeness  was  not  complete  enough. 
The  feeding  of  the  five  thousand  had  been  pri- 
marily through  a  little  bread  put  into  Christ's 
hands  by  a  young  by-stander.  The  Manna  was  a 
real  miracle,  as  they  regarded  it,  substance  and 
all.  So  they  in  effect  say,  ''Do  as  much  as  Moses, 
and  we  will  believe  on  you."  But  our  Lord  was 
not  seeking  to  be  accepted  as  the  successor  of  Moses, 
and  shows  that  they  were  mistaken  in  making  the 
gift  of  Manna  a  work  of  Moses.  It  Avas  a  clear 
gift  of  God,  up  to  whom,  and  to  the  true  Food 
of  souls.  He  was  anxious  to  lead  them.  The 
Manna  came  down  from  heaven,  but  it  was 
only  a  prophecy,  a  supply  for  the  occasion.  It 
accomplished  in  the  end  no  more  than  any  other 
daily  bread.     ''Your  fathers  ate  it  and  are  dead." 

E'ow,  Christ  goes  on,  there  really  does  come  to 
you  the  Bread,  of  which  the  Manna  was  only  a 
type.  This  Bread  is  "Living  Bread."  It  is  in 
the  Living  Bread  sent  down  from  God  that  you 
are  asked  to  have  faith.  "I  am  the  Bread  of  Life." 
This  seems  to  us  now  a  perfectly  natural  claim 
after  the  mighty  deed  which  Christ  had  just 
wrought.  In  whose  power  could  He  have  done 
that  except  in  God's,  and  who  must  He  be  to  have 


38  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

that  power  conferred  upon  Him  ?  But  remember, 
Christ  was  speaking  in  "His  own  city."  He  was 
so  well  known  there  that  He  couldn't  be  known 
differently  from  other  people.  And  any  claim  to 
be  something  in  Himself  was  at  once  rejected  by 
many  of  His  hearers. 

They  listened  further,  however,  to  a  fuller  un- 
folding of  His  teaching.  He  explains  that,  not 
only  is  He  "the  Bread  of  God,"  "the  Bread  of 
Life,"  but  that  partaking  of  Him  is  necessary  for 
eternal  life.  The  fruit  of  partaking  of  His  Flesh 
and  Blood  would  be  eternal  life  and  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body;  and  without  that  partaking 
there  would  be  no  such  life  at  all.  This,  of  course, 
was  a  prophecy  of  the  Holy  Communion,  and  is  so 
understood  by  us.  Taking  Christ  at  His  word  to 
Nicodemus,  and  believing  what  He  says  here,  the 
Church  has  announced  that  Baptism  and  the  Holy 
Communion  are  not  only  "means  of  grace,"  but 
that  they  are  "generally  necessary  to  salvation." 
This  is  not  a  doctrine  ecclesiastically  invented,  but 
a  transcript  of  the  scripture. 

You  will  remember  that  a  good  many  people 
followed  Christ  up  to  a  certain  point,  and  that  the 
murmuring  at  His  teaching  is  not  always  repre- 
sented as  the  murmuring  of  the  Jews,  but  some- 
times as  the  murmuring  of  the  disciples.  There 
was  murmuring  of  this  latter  sort  here.     So  it  is 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  39 

not  therefore  remarkable  that  there  has  always 
been  hesitancy  in  the  Church  about  sacramental 
doctrine.  It  seems  to  be  as  hard  for  some  people 
as  it  is  easy  and  natural  for  others. 

The  doctrine  Christ  was  expounding  seemed 
to  the  Jews  and  to  His  disciples  extreme,  and  al- 
most revolting.  The  temptation  to  many,  now,  to 
get  rid  of  the  essential  truth  of  our  communication 
in  Christ's  Body  and  Blood  is  too  great.  They 
can  only  go  part  of  the  way  with  Him.  Then  to 
make  salvation  hinge  on  this  participation  seems 
strangely  exclusive,  and  so  one  truth  or  another 
is  changed  or  avoided  to  make  the  Gospel  fit  ob- 
jections, instead  of  fitting  ourselves  to  the  Gospel. 

Sinners  in  need  of  salvation  are  curiously 
captious.  They  are  like  men  in  danger  of  drown- 
ing, who  should  object  to  the  rope  that  was  thrown 
them,  and  should  say,  I  don't  like  that  rope;  I 
would  rather  have  a  life  preserver. 

This,  however,  ought  to  be  added,  for  it  seems 
to  be  true:  Our  Lord  was  undoubtedly  speaking 
in  advance  of  the  institution  of  that  sacrament, 
wherein,  after  His  Body  had  been  visibly  broken, 
and  His  Blood  poured  out,  He  would  make  us 
mystical  partakers  of  the  same,  and  continue  these 
blessed  benefits  to  His  Church  for  all  time.  But, 
nevertheless.  His  words  must  have  had  a  present 
force.     Those  who  had  already  given  themselves 


40  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

to  Christ  must  have  seen  great  fitness  in  His  state- 
ment that  He  was  the  Bread  of  Life.  They  must 
have  realized  that  they  could  not  live  without  Him, 
that  He  was  their  daily  support. 

When  other  half-disciples  went  away,  these 
full  believers  foimd  no  one  to  go  to.  "Lord,  to 
whom  shall  we  go?  Thou  hast  the  words  of 
Eternal  Life."  He  was  not  only  the  one  who 
promised  eternal  life,  but  He  may  be  said  to  have 
been  the  only  one  who  ever  had  the  idea  of  it. 
To  whom,  indeed,  shall  we  go? 

Now,  when  the  Church  preaches  the  "general 
necessity"  of  the  sacraments,  she  does  not  at  the 
same  time  disregard  any  portion  of  the  truth,  nor 
conceal  that  the  purpose  of  the  sacraments  is  to  be 
means  for  effecting  the  general  purposes  of  Christ. 
If  the  Jews  at  Capernaum  had  been  disposed  to 
accept  Christ,  they  would  not  have  had  to  wait 
until  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper  to  begin 
to  be  partakers  of  Him.  They  would  have  been 
united  to  Him  by  faith,  at  least  in  a  measure ;  but 
when  the  sacrament  came,  it  would  have  drawn 
this  union  closer.  Already  His  words  could  be 
taken  as  "spirit  and  life." 

So  the  Church  does  not  doubt  that  many  are 
worthy  communicants  who  yet  do  not  visibly  have 
the  tokens  of  Christ's  presence  before  them.  We 
take  great  comfort  on  lonely  death  beds   in  the 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  41 

thought  of  spiritual  communion,  and  its  reality 
and  saving  character,  even  failing  the  visible  table. 
For  then  God  spreads  His  own  table  to  our  faith. 
And  the  Church  is  trying  to  train  herself  to  recog- 
nize goodness  where  she  sees  it.  She  sees  people 
feeding  on  Christ,  though  they  do  not  appreciate 
the  sacraments.  She  thinks  they  are  mistaken, 
indeed,  she  knows  that,  and  that  they  are  queer  in 
their  views;  but  has  come  to  believe  that  queer 
people  can  be  good  people,  and  that  in  some  way 
they  are  made  communicants  in  spite  of  them- 
selves. And,  fortunately,  the  tendency  of  all  real 
acceptance  of  grace  is  to  bring  people  back  to  the 
use  of  normal  means.  It  can  be  no  accident  that 
so  many  Quakers  have  come  into  the  Church. 
They  were  seeking  realities;  the  Baptism  of  the 
Spirit,  the  true  Fellowship  and  Communion  with 
Christ.  Christ  graciously  accepted  many  of  them, 
and  gave  them  what  they  sought,  and  this  brought 
to  them  the  realization  that  whatever  Christ  in- 
stituted must  be  real ;  and  because  they  came  close 
to  Him  they  learned  humility  of  Him,  and  bowed 
themselves  at  the  font  and  the  altar.  And  we  are 
greatly  enriched  by  their  return.  God  keep  us  in 
the  way  of  faith:  the  sacramental  way. 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

VII. THE  REASON   FOR  FASTING. 

Then  came  to  Him  the  disciples  of  John,  saying, 
Why  do  we  and  the  Pharisees  fast  oft,  and  Thy 
disciples  fast  not? — St.  Matt.  9: 14. 

HE  disciples  of  John  were,  at  least, 
serious  people,  though  they  had  thus 
far  accepted  only  an  introduction  to 
better  things.  There  is  evidence  that 
they  were  put  forward,  however,  to  ask  this  ques- 
tion by  others ;  but,  so  soon  as  it  was  raised,  they 
naturally  would  seek  the  answer.  Fasting  was 
considered  a  conspicuous  virtue,  an  evidence  of 
sanctity.  All  eastern  peoples  so  regard  it.  Al- 
most all  religions  inculcate  it,  we  really  know  of  no 
exception.  'Now  Christianity  from  the  very  first 
made  larger  claims  than  any  other  religion.  How 
could  it  be  superior,  as  it  claimed  to  be,  if  it 
neglected  anything  so  fundamental  as  fasting? 
This  seemed  to  be  the  state  of  mind  in  which 
John's  disciples  found  themselves. 

Xow  fasting  does  have  its  place  in  Christianity. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  43 

Our  Lord  Himself  fasted,  He  attached  great  im- 
portance to  it.  He  gave  a  number  of  precepts 
about  how  it  was  to  be  exercised,  He  attributed 
power  to  it.  But  He  did  not  consider  it  important 
except  as  a  means  to  an  end.  To  fast  often,  just 
for  the  sake  of  fasting,  that  one  might  catalogue 
the  occasions  and  tabulate  one's  virtues,  this  is 
quite  the  reverse  of  our  Lord's  view  of  fasting. 
And  so  He  explains  to  John's  disciples  that  fasting 
could  be  entirely  out  of  place,  just  as  much  so  as 
if  one  should  bring  funeral  thoughts  to  the  house 
of  feasting.  The  children  of  the  bride-chamber 
simply  couldnt  fast!  It  would  have  been  an 
offense.  And  just  so  His  disciples  could  not  fast 
as  long  as  they  were  enjoying  the  presence  of  their 
Lord.  They  might  fast  to  prepare  themselves  to 
enter  His  presence,  but  never  in  His  presence. 

'Now  let  us  look  closely  at  what  fasting  is, 
and  what  it  is  not.  Tasting  is  not  merely  going 
without  things.  Our  Lord's  disciples  went  without 
a  great  many  things.  They  gave  up  home  com- 
forts, home  occupations,  in  order  to  be  with  Him. 
That  was  not  counted  fasting.  They  doubtless  had 
very  plain  fare  while  they  were  with  Him,  and 
that  was  not  counted  fasting,  though  they  probably 
had  less  to  encourage  appetite  at  any  time  than 
the  most  stringent  Lenten  rules  would  allow.  That 
men  living  chiefly  on  bread  and  water  should  not 


44  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

be  considered  as  fasting,  while  others,  having 
three  meals  a  day  and  a  considerable  variety,  may 
look  upon  themselves  as  doing  it,  seems  at  least  to 
call  for  some  explanation.     Let  us  try  to  find  it. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  hardship  of  any  kind,  if 
undergone  purposefully  in  the  line  of  our  duty, 
and  cheerfully  endured  for  the  sake  of  any  good 
cause,  is  a  real  means  of  grace,  and  does  resemble 
fasting  somewhat  in  principle.  But  enduring  it 
is  a  virtue  in  itself,  which  fasting  hardly  seems  to 
be.  And  description  or  definition  of  fasting  has  to 
take  into  account  its  purpose.  Its  purpose  is  de- 
tachment from  the  world,  and  approach  to  God, 
laying  ourselves  bare  and  empty  before  Him,  to  be 
filled  with  spiritual  bounty  and  strength.  And  in 
our  Lord's  life  He  always  seems  to  have  fasted 
rather  on  account  of  others  than  for  Himself.  He 
fasted  to  increase  healing  power. 

So  the  details  of  fasting  may  vary  about  as 
much  as  one  pleases.  But  it  has  to  begin  in  the 
will.  Whatever  a  man  wills  to  go  without  for 
the  sake  of  teaching  him  direct  dependence  upon 
God,  for  the  sake  of  breaking  down  the  power  of 
habit  (not  merely  bad  habits,  but  any  habit  that 
limits  the  freedom  of  our  service  to  God  and  man), 
for  the  sake  of  grace  that  he  may  better  spread 
God's  blessing,  for  the  sake  of  revealing  to  him 
what  have  boon  his  causes  for  thankfulness,  for 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  45 

the  sake  of  telling  him  how  far  his  apparent 
virtues  are  bound  up  with  his  comfort,  this  is  the 
beginning  of  fasting. 

The  actual  self-denial  of  fasting,  therefore, 
may  be  quite  limited,  as  it  may  be  fully  in  our 
power  to  determine  upon.  The  evidence  of  the 
act  may  be  symbolic,  more  than  anything  else. 
Fasting  which  extends  only  to  symbolic  self  denial 
may,  however,  be  extremely  valuable,  more  so  than 
inexperienced  prescriptions  which  we  may  make 
for  ourselves.  For  the  Church  knows  a  good  deal 
more  about  it  than  we  do.  And  if  we  are  to  take 
it  up  seriously  we  had  better  do  it  in  her  way, 
under  her  guidance.  For  overdone  fasting  is  no 
better  than  no  fasting  at  all,  and  is  apt  to  be  done 
for  imperfect  reasons. 

Remember  clearly,  therefore,  that  we  are  not 
counted  righteous  or  unrighteous  for  fasting  or 
not  fasting,  and  we  may  so  fast  as  to  appear  to 
people  who  have  to  come  pretty  close  to  us  any- 
thing but  heavenly  minded;  cross,  mean,  queru- 
lous, unreasonable.  What  possible  advantage  can 
that  be  to  us  ?  And  then  if  we  begin  real  fasting, 
it  would  be  as  unwise  to  begin  with  severity,  as 
it  would  be  to  demand  that  a  young  athlete  should 
try  the  hardest  feats  first,  before  he  had  been 
duly  exercised  as  a  preliminary. 

The   Church's  idea,   therefore,   following  our 


46  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

Lord  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  is  to  give  con- 
siderable attention  to  such  fasting  as  can  be  done 
brightly  and  cheerfully  in  the  eye  of  the  world 
without  inconveniencing  other  people,  without 
calling  their  attention  to  us,  without  even  being 
noticed.  It  involves,  if  possible,  the  surrender  of 
some  time.  Friday  is  designated  in  every  week 
as  a  day  of  abstinence,  measured,  that  is  to  say, 
thoughtful  abstinence.  The  thought  involved,  the 
direction  of  the  mind,  is  the  most  important  part 
of  it.  And  Friday  is  chosen  as  the  weekly  me- 
morial of  the  Passion  of  Christ.  Thus  the  mere 
thought  brings  us  in  the  same  direction  that  the 
fasting  is  intended  to  carry  us,  into  fellowship 
with  Christ. 

Our  Church  says  nothing  specific  about  the 
kinds  of  food  we  may  allow  ourselves  on  abstinence 
days.  But  it  seems  well  for  us  to  consider  ancient 
customs.  For  while  it  is  probable  that  the  Church 
meant  to  imply  that  the  details  were  left  to  the 
individual,  and  were  less  important  than  the 
principle,  it  is  also  probable  that  it  was  thought 
unnecessary  to  prescribe  what  everyone  would  be 
likely  to  know  without  prescription.  Everyone 
for  centuries  had  been  in  the  habit  of  abstaining 
from  flesh  meat,  and  eating  fish  where  it  was 
obtainable.  The  fish  was  the  ancient  symbol  of 
the  Christian.     The  Greek  word  for  fish  was  com- 


~  DIVINE  ANSWERS  47 

posed  of  the  words  which,  in  that  language,  stood 
for  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  the  Saviour. 
Thus,  such  food  as  custom  permitted  would  accent 
the  purpose  of  fasting,  the  direct  approach  to 
Christ. 

Fasting  undirected  to  any  purpose  is  not  re- 
commended. All  the  holy  men  of  old  had  the  mind 
directed  toward  the  special  benefit  they  sought  in 
drawing  near.  They  simply  could  not  conceive 
of  fasting  without  prayer.  They  knew  "man  could 
not  live  by  bread  alone,"  but  they  also  knew  he 
could  not  live  without  the  word  and  communion 
of  God.  So  the  saint,  when  he  goes  without 
bread,  seeks  the  Bread  of  Life;  when  he  goes 
without  salt,  seeks  the  savor  of  holiness;  when  he 
takes  time  from  his  own  work  and  pleasure  and 
goes  apart,  as  it  were,  into  the  desert,  he  is  seeking 
Him  to  transform  the  desert  into  the  Garden  of 
the  Lord. 

And  in  all  things  he  is  seeking  for  that  mastery 
of  life,  that  spiritual  contentment  which  makes  us 
perfectly  happy  with  any  thing  we  have,  as  long 
as  we  are  sure  of  our  place  with  God.  Then, 
though  "having  nothing''  we  are  "possessing  all 
things."  So  the  fruit  of  spiritual  fasting  is  not 
exhaustion  but  new  power,  a  new  view  of  things, 
so  that  we  see  blessing  in  what  we  have,  and  do 
not  repine  because  we  haven't  them  all  at  once. 


48  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

When  Dean  Hook,  described  as  the  greatest 
parish  priest  the  modern  English  Church  has 
known,  was  a  young  man,  he  made  a  trip  to  Scot- 
land, and  paid  a  visit  to  Bishop  Alexander  Jolly. 
The  Scottish  Church  was  then  very  poor.  Bishop 
Jolly  was  living  alone  except  for  a  young  deacon 
who  was  his  companion  and  chaplain.  The  Bishop 
invited  the  young  English  visitor  to  dinner.  The 
meal  consisted  of  potatoes  without  any  thing  else. 
There  were  no  apologies.  Hook  has  left  it  on 
record  that,  so  wonderful  was  the  Bishop's  con- 
versation, he  never  enjoyed  a  meal  more  in  his 
life.  This  was  not  fasting.  [N'or  is  any  man  con- 
scious of  privation  when  he  has  arisen  to  that 
view  of  life  our  Saviour  took  when  He  said,  "My 
meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me,  and 
to  finish  His  work." 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

VIII. THE   TRADITIONS   OF   THE   ELDERS. 

Why  do  Thy  disciples  transgress  the  traditions  of 
the  elders?  for  they  wash  not  when  they  eat  bread. — 
St.  Matt.  15:2. 

OST  of  us  do  not  do  any  very  deep 
thinking  about  what  makes  things 
right  or  wrong.  Two  people  get  to 
talking  on  the  subject.  "Why  is  this 
wrong  ?''  one  asks ;  and  the  other  says,  "It's  against 
the  law."  But  what  is  the  law?  The  word  does 
not  always  mean  quite  the  same  thing. 

What  do  you  mean,  for  instance,  when  you 
speak  of  "the  Law  of  Moses  ?''  Do  you  mean  the 
Ten  Commandments,  or  do  you  mean  the  careful 
and  elaborate  ceremonial  law,  the  details  about 
clothes,  sicknesses,  food,  travel;  dry  enough  until 
you  meet  with  such  a  wonderful  flash  of  sentiment 
as  this:  "Thou  shalt  not  seethe  a  kid  in  his 
mother's  milk  ?" 

Go  back  to  the  books  in  which  this  Law  of 


50  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

Moses  is  contained,  and  you  will  see  that  the  Ten 
Commandments  are  Universal  Law.  There  is 
nothing  there  that  can  be  superseded.  Even  the 
Sabbath  Law  covers  a  principle  as  well  as  certain 
details  which  we  do  not  now  apply.  But  the  rest 
of  the  laws,  though  they  were  founded  on  good 
reasons,  seem  to  have  been  all  temporary.  In  our 
Lord's  time,  however,  these  were  by  no  means  all 
of  the  laws  people  were  supposed  to  observe. 
There  had  been  added  a  mass  of  details  known  as 
the  tradition  of  the  elders.  And  this  was  all 
regarded  as  law.  And  men  were  not  at  all  clear 
that  these  added  precepts  were  not  just  as  sacred 
and  holy  as  the  Ten  Commandments.  Further — 
and  this  is  very  important — they  were  much  easier 
to  keep  than  the  Ten  Commandments.  The  Ten 
Commandments  have  a  way  of  making  you  un- 
comfortable. They  aren't  as  simple  as  they  seem. 
But  it  is  easy  to  be  virtuous  if  it  consists  in  small 
ceremonies  and  observances. 

There  were  even  ritual  details  about  this  hand- 
washing which  really  symplified  the  matter.  You 
put  your  fingers  into  water  just  so  far,  and  that 
was  washing.  You  had  obeyed  the  tradition. 
Were  your  hands  clean?  Oh,  that  was  another 
matter.  It  made  less  difference.  This  was  the 
pass  things  had  come  to  in  our  Saviour's  time. 
The  Law  was  not  only  God's  Law,  but  it  was  a 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  51 

profession.  Men  were  interested  in  seeing  that 
its  professors  had  a  good  living.  And  it  is  always 
the  same  story.  A  man  might  really  be  a  holy 
and  spiritual  man  in  those  old  days,  but  he 
couldn't  satisfy  the  scribes  unless  he  were  willing 
to  be  enslaved  to  red  tape. 

If  a  man's  ox  or  ass  fell  into  a  pit,  and  was 
likely  to  be  lamed  or  drovmed,  he  might  pull  him 
out  on  the  Sabbath  day.  But  our  Saviour  was 
faulted  for  making  a  little  wet  clay  with  His  own 
spittle  in  order  to  heal  a  man  who  had  been  born 
blind.  He  did  this  on  the  Sabbath.  The  man  was 
counted  as  actually  of  less  consequence  than  the 
dumb  beast,  because  he  couldn't  be  sold  for  money. 
Men  who  were  keenly  conscientious — if  that  is 
not  too  large  a  word — about  paying  tithes  of  the 
fruit  of  small  seeds,  who  wore  unusually  wide 
borders  to  their  garments,  for  religious  ostentation, 
who  would  never  omit  a  detail  of  ritual  purifica- 
tion, who  fasted  one  hundred  and  four  times  a 
year,  instead  of  the  one  time  decreed  by  the  elder 
law  and  the  few  times  added  on  account  of  histor- 
ical reasons  later,  who  were  punctual  at  the 
synagogue,  and  all  that,  scrupled  not  at  all  to  be 
unmerciful,  avaricious,  treacherous,  vindictive, 
hard  hearted.  They  did  not  want  to  be  good,  they 
only  wanted  to  be  correct. 

Our  Lord  takes  men  right  back  to  reasons. 


52  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

The  whole  law  was  founded  on  the  knowledge  of 
what  was  best  for  man.  It  was  severe,  but  it  was 
also  merciful  and  kind.  There  was  always  con- 
sideration for  the  poor,  for  animals,  for  sentiment. 
The  sacrifices  all  meant  great  realities.  Psalmist 
and  prophet  had  understood  that  the  soul  needed 
purging  with  better  things  than  outward  sprink- 
lings, that  obedience  and  mercy  were  better  than 
costly  offerings.  But  legalism  grew  up  in  spite 
of  the  prophets.  And  our  Lord  struck  directly  at 
the  false  root. 

He  dealt  slightly  differently  with  these  sub- 
jects when  He  was  talking  to  the  people  themselves 
than  when  He  was  questioned  by  the  people  most 
responsible  for  these  heavy  burdens.  He  told  the 
people  that  they  might  go  on  observing  these 
precepts,  if  they  only  avoided  imitating  the  iniqui- 
ties of  the  formalist  leaders.  But  when  the  issue 
was  raised  He  met  it  fairly,  and  does  not  hesitate 
to  show  how  entirely  without  moral  meaning  many 
of  the  traditions  were. 

There  was  a  law  of  clean  meats,  things  which 
might  be  eaten  and  things  which  might  not  be 
eaten,  that  had  come  down  from  Moses'  time. 
There  was  a  reason  for  this  law.  The  forbidden 
things  were  all  either  liable  to  parasites  which 
could  be  communicated  to  man,  or  were  otherwise 
unwholesome.    Our  Lord  would  by  no  means  have 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  53 

suggested  that  this  law  should  not  be  kept.  But 
He  did  say  that  food  could  not  of  itself  com- 
municate defilement.  The  worst  defilement  was 
from  a  bad  heart.  The  Pharisees  were  only  con- 
cerned with  the  outside  of  things,  the  outside  of 
cups  and  platters,  the  outside  of  life.  If  a  thing 
had  been  ceremoniously  washed,  it  made  no  dif- 
ference to  them  whether  it  was  clean  or  not.  But 
our  Lord  knew  that  it  was  the  centre  of  life  that 
needed  purifying.  ^^Out  of  the  heart,"  He  said, 
"proceed  evil  thoughts,  murders,  adulteries,  forni- 
cations, thefts,  false  witness,  blasphemies:  these 
are  the  things  that  defile  a  man:  but  to  eat  with 
unwashen  hands  defileth  not  a  man." 

Now  does  this  mean  that  Christ  would  have 
us  break  with  the  rules  and  conventions  of  society  ? 
By  no  means.  A  real  Christian  ought  to  have  the 
best  manners  in  the  world.  The  rules  of  good 
society  are  many  of  them  founded  on  the  most 
excellent  reasons,  reasons  of  respect,  consideration, 
cleanliness,  and  protection.  But  you  cannot  go 
far  without  finding  customs  that  are  a  snare. 
Society — no,  not  society,  but  what  falsely  claims 
to  be  society — ^will  ordain  things  immodest,  dis- 
honest, and  unkind.  A  Christian  must  be  brave 
enough  to  refuse  these  things  respect.  A  most 
beautiful  courtesy  can  be  built  up  out  of  the  "New 
Testament,  which  will  be  oj^en  to  no  just  criticism 


54  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

from  anyone.  If  the  heart  be  really  right  the 
manners  cannot  go  far  wrong,  and  even  the  in- 
experienced man,  if  he  have  fundamental  kindness 
as  his  inward  guide,  needs  no  time  at  all  to  adjust 
himself  to  the  slightly  different  details  of  what 
pass  for  good  manners  in  different  walks  of  life. 

And  we  do  well  to  stop  and  think  before  we 
criticize  any  manners  that  are  different  from  our 
own,  until  we  are  sure  they  are  worse.  They  may 
be  better,  though  different.  Country  manners 
differ  somewhat  from  city  manners,  but  they  are 
no  worse.  They  are  apt  to  be  a  great  deal  kinder 
and  therefore  better.  But  their  special  suitable- 
ness is  just  where  we  find  them.  There  is  no  need 
to  drive  out  any  other  code.  Keep  to  the  reasons 
of  things,  and  keep  the  heart  in  the  right  place. 

Every  Church  with  a  ritual,  and  with  its  o^vn 
customs,  needs  to  caution  its  members  to  keep 
alive  in  their  hearts  a  true  instinct  for  essentials. 
It  is  possible  to  grow  very  critical  over  the  details 
of  our  services,  and  more  keen  than  kind  in  their 
observance.  They  were  made  to  help  us,  we  were 
not  made  for  them.  There  is  wide  scope  for 
mutual  consideration  in  such  matters  as  the  music, 
the  decorations,  and  the  elaboration  of  the  service. 
Taste  is  a  thing  that  can  be  offered  in  sacrifice  as 
well  as  wealth.  Elaborate  ceremonies  can  be  con- 
ducted  without   reverence,    and   reverence   shown 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  55 

by  the  very  simplest  forms.  !6ut  reverence  is 
certainly  more  important  than  forms.  Still, 
though  we  have  plain  tastes,  the  plain  man  must 
remember  that  there  are  others  with  perhaps  wider 
culture,  and  with  gifts  which  could  be  consecrated 
to  a  more  splendid  rendition  of  our  worship. 
Eeverence  will  be  their  guide  as  well  as  ours. 
And  plain  tastes  may  be  sacrificed  as  well  as 
elaborate  ones. 

Under  the  inward  guidance  of  Christ  we  will 
"be  pitiful,  be  courteous,"  we  will  "honour  all  men, 
and  love  the  brotherhood,"  we  will  be  "kind  one 
to  another,  tender  hearted  and  forgiving."  The 
truly  clean  hands  are  the  hands  of  honesty,  and 
the  hands  of  mercy. 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND   DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

IX. THE   FIRST   STONE. 

Moses  in  the  Law  commanded  that  such  should  le 
stoned;  hut  what  sayest  Thou? — St.  John  8:4. 

HERE  were  a  number  of  very  extreme 
penalties  ordered  for  the  grave  of- 
fences against  the  Mosaic  Law.  The 
historical  scriptures,  however,  which 
may  be  regarded  as  a  sort  of  commentary  on  the 
Law,  do  not  say  very  much  about  the  actual  in- 
fliction of  these  penalties.  A  lesser  punishment 
seems  to  have  been  often  regarded  as  substantially 
satisfying  justice.  The  death  penalty  of  Achan 
seems  to  have  been  the  only  instance  of  its  kind, 
and  it  was  administered  under  conditions  like 
martial  law.  So,  too,  the  case  of  the  man  put  to 
death  for  Sabbath  breaking  early  in  the  Wilder- 
ness sojourn  is  given  as  an  isolated  one,  that,  also, 
being  under  the  conditions  of  martial  law.  An 
extreme  penalty  often  expressed  a  weighty  sense 
of   the   present   public   need.      We    all   know   the 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  57 

difference  between  punishment  of  desertion  from 
the  army  in  time  of  peace,  and  of  the  same  offence 
in  the  face  of  the  enemy.  In  one  case  it  is  im- 
prisonment, and  in  the  other  death.  But  the 
offence  is  the  same.  And  a  penalty  to  be  inflicted 
is  always  dependent  upon  being  able  to  find  some- 
one to  undertake  the  act  of  punishment. 

We  occasionally  hear  people  advocate  the  re- 
vival of  the  whipping-post  for  some  class  of  cruel 
offenses,  like  wife-beating.  Well,  who  is  going 
to  swing  the  lash  ?  He  would  have  to  be  rather  a 
brute  first,  and  if  he  wasn't,  the  act  would  have  a 
brutalizing  effect,  or,  at  least,  make  him  very  much 
ashamed.  A  decent  man  would  really  have  to  be 
sentenced  to  do  it,  and  would  feel  worse  punished 
than  the  victim. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  clamors  for  reform 
that  shake  the  political  world  from  time  to  time. 
Then  we  have  investigations,  and  grand  juries, 
and  the  like,  but  the  pity  of  it  seems  to  be  that  a 
more  vital  interest  is  shown  in  getting  people  into 
jail,  than  in  purifying  the  springs  of  action. 
Suppose  every  law,  human  or  Divine,  should  be 
enforced  against  us.  You  would  then  be  judged, 
not  only  on  your  present  behavior,  but  account 
would  have  to  be  taken  of  every  thing  that  has 
not  been  outlawed.  And  some  things  never  out- 
law.    Or,  suppose  yourself  to  be  made  responsible 


58  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

for  personally  carrying  out  the  sentences  on  all 
the  dishonest  politicians  whom  you  are  anxious 
to  see  punished.  It  would  be  sure  seriously  to 
check  your  anxiety  to  have  all  penalties  applied. 

'Now,  in  the  case  before  us,  the  question  asked 
our  Lord  was  intended  for  a  trap.  It  was  in- 
tended to  involve  Him  in  a  contradiction.  We 
may  suppose  that  the  Jews  expected  some  self- 
assertion  of  Christ  which  would  assume  to  modify 
the  Mosaic  enactment.  He  had  already  claimed 
to  be  what  Moses  was  not,  the  Son  of  God.  The 
criminal  was  brought  before  Him,  and  there  seems 
to  have  been  no  defense  possible,  or  attempted. 
Moses  had  commanded  that  the  guilty  person 
should  be  stoned,  though  just  why  the  Jews  had 
not  brought  them  both  is  hard  to  say,  except  that 
good  people  are  always  harder  on  the  woman.  So, 
after  stating  Moses'  decree,  they  inquire,  ^'But 
what  sayest  Thou  ?" 

Our  Lord  does  not  make  any  answer  in  words. 
He  does  nothing  to  modify  the  law.  He  leaves  it 
just  as  it  was  written.  But  He  bent  over  till  He 
could  touch  the  ground  with  His  finger.  You 
know  the  old  law  was  said  to  have  been  written 
with  the  Finger  of  God.  That,  however,  was 
written  on  stone.  TsTow  Christ  writes  on  the 
ground,  as  though  He  did  not  hear  what  was  being 
said.     Then,  He  rises  and  says  to  the  circle  of 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  59 

men  what  is  practically  a  confirmation  of  the  sen- 
tence, and  a  demand  for  its  immediate  execution 
— if  they  can  stand  it!  "Let  him  that  is  with- 
out sin  among  you  first  cast  a  stone  at  her."  And 
again  He  stooped  down,  and  wrote  on  the  ground. 
He  went  on  writing  apparently  for  some  time 
without  looking  at  either  the  men  or  the  woman, 
and  all  the  accusers  fell  under  conviction.  So 
they  all  went  out,  one  after  another,  beginning 
with  the  eldest,  until  our  Lord  was  left  alone  with 
the  woman,  and  He  bade  her,  "Go,  and  sin  no 
more." 

The  thought  is  almost  unavoidable  that,  when 
our  Lord  said,  "He  that  is  without  sin  among 
you,"  there  was  a  real,  though  unexpressed,  em- 
phasis upon  this  sin.  It  can  hardly  be  taken  dif- 
ferently, for  nothing  else  was  under  consideration. 
If  they  all  were  guilty,  they  had  all  condemned 
themselves,  to  death,  by  that  law  to  which  they  had 
appealed  to  decide  the  fate  of  the  woman  before 
them.  True,  they  may  not  have  meant  to  confess 
such  an  extreme  infraction  of  the  law  as  would 
have  condemned  them  to  death;  but  they  did  ad- 
mit some  degree  of  similar  guilt. 

And  this  is  important  for  us  to  think  about. 
Our  Lord  extends  each  one  of  the  moral  command- 
ments by  showing  us  the  principle  involved.  The 
first  breach  of  every  commandment  is  in  the  heart. 


60  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

The  sin  of  the  heart  may  never  be  known,  because 
it  is  not  in  our  power  to  carry  the  secret  desire 
out  in  action.  But  the  sin  is  registered  as  sin, 
and  will  so  be  declared  in  the  judgment. 

Suppose,  for  instance,  we  turn  back  to  the  con- 
sideration of  our  great  moral  scandal,  what  we 
call  "grafting,"  and  suppose  we  are  leading  the 
hue  and  cry  after  the  offenders.  Just  stop  a  mo- 
ment. Did  you  ever  graft?  The  practice  runs 
through  almost  all  walks  of  life.  It  is  half  un- 
consciously resorted  to  in  private  ways  by  many 
who  do  not  see  the  resemblance  between  their  own 
behavior,  and  what  they  object  to  in  public  officers. 
No,  very  few  people  are  absolutely  honest.  They 
mean  to  be,  but  they  don't  think  quickly  enough; 
they  break  down  on  the  details.  If  there  were  no 
such  thing  as  mercy,  most  people  would  have  to 
go  to  jail.  But  jail  is  no  place  to  send  people  to 
reform  them,  not  as  jails  are;  and  we  believe  in 
reform.  The  main  emphasis  therefore  ought  to 
be  just  where  Christ  put  it:  '^Sin  no  more." 

And,  because  we  realize  that  we  are  ourselves 
the  subjects  of  mercy,  it  ought  to  be  unthinkable 
that  we  should  be  careless  of  conditions  that  make 
it  almost  impossible  for  people  to  accept  this 
merciful  parole.  There  are  agencies  at  work, 
almost  all  bound  up  with  sordid  money  getting, 
that  tend  to  render  reformation  in  many  cases  an 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  61 

almost  impossible  thing.  To  reform,  you  have  to 
fight  your  own  evil  passions.  This  is  hard  enough 
without  anything  else  working  against  you.  But 
suppose  everything  else  seems  to  be  against  you, 
and  no  helping  hand  is  offered,  and  there  is  no 
roof  for  you  except  to  go  back  to  the  bad  associa- 
tions you  came  from.  Then  how  desperate  the 
chances  for  you! 

It  takes  a  long  time  for  us  to  learn  that  our 
Lord  really  meant  things  just  as  He  said  them. 
Sometimes  it  is  hard  for  us  to  believe  that  we  have 
been  forgiven,  or  can  be  forgiven.  But  it  is  even 
harder  to  realize  that  God  is  interested  in  real 
outcasts,  and  is  willing  to  forgive  them.  But,  un- 
less we  can  be  interested  in  all  those  for  whom 
Christ  died,  we  may  find  our  own  hold  on  forgive- 
ness slipping  away.  "We  have  left  undone  those 
things  that  we  ought  to  have  done." 

So  do  not  be  so  anxious  to  punish  sinners  as 
you  are  to  help  them  to  a  better  life.  Sin  often 
takes  care  of  its  own  punishment  in  a  way  that 
even  forgiveness  does  not  much  mitigate;  some- 
times forgiveness  makes  past  sin  pain  us  worse, 
because  then  we  realize  that  we  have  sinned 
against  love.  Being  forgiven  yourself,  "Sin  no 
more  lest  a  worse  thing  happen  unto  thee";  and, 
knowing  that  there  is  forgiveness  for  others,  even 
the  worst,   do  your  active  best   as   a  responsible 


62  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

member  of  society  to  see  that  it  is  made  halfway 
possible  for  great  offenders  to  take  the  Saviour  at 
His  word.  What  is  written  on  the  ground  can  be 
washed  out  by  the  next  rain.  We  must  learn  to 
forget,  to  let  the  tears  of  nature  obliterate  the 
past.  We  must  learn  to  remember  that  good 
people  have  been  bad ;  but  that  bad  people,  by  the 
mercy  of  God,  can  become  good. 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANWSERS 

X. NO   FAITH,    NO   POWEE. 

Why  could  not  we  cast  him  out? — St.  Matt.  17: 19. 

HE  miracle  of  the  healing  of  the  de- 
moniac child,  with  which  this  ques- 
tion is  connected,  occurred  just  as 
Christ  was  come  down  from  the  Mount 
of  the  Transfiguration.  He  had  with  Him  on 
the  mountain  three  of  His  disciples,  the  three 
who  were  always  the  closest  companions  He  had 
in  supreme  moments.  He  left  the  other  nine  at 
the  foot  of  the  mountain  waiting  for  Him.  His 
absence  was  probably  for  a  night,  and  as  long  as 
it  took  to  go  and  come.  These  nine  were  not  ab- 
solutely alone ;  they  were  accessible  to  whomsoever 
wanted  to  come,  and  they  were  exposed  to  ques- 
tions and  objections  by  the  scribes,  as  well  as  liable 
to  be  called  upon  for  works  of  healing.  Judas 
was,  of  course,  with  them,  and  it  was  less  than  a 
year  before  he  betrayed  our  Lord.  But  all  had 
had  some  experience  of  power  over  disease  and 


64  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

unclean  spirits.  Judas  himself,  as  we  believe,  had 
had  this  experience,  for  there  seems  no  history  of 
failure  until  this  occasion. 

An  afflicted  father  brings  to  the  nine  his  de- 
moniac son ;  it  was  an  aggravated  case.  The  symp- 
toms as  described  read  very  much  like  a  desperate 
case  of  epilepsy.  But  our  Lord  treats  it  as  a 
demoniac  possession,  and  indeed  it  was  very  piti- 
ful.    The  case  was  also  of  very  long  standing. 

The  father  had,  we  may  suppose,  intended  to 
bring  the  unfortunate  youth  to  Christ  Himself, 
but  found  that  He  Avas  absent.  But  as  a  next 
resort  he  appeals  to  the  disciples.  They  under- 
took the  exorcism,  and,  probably  to  their  astonish- 
ment, failed.  Remember,  it  is  the  only  case  of 
failure  recorded,  though,  of  our  Lord  Himself 
it  is  said  on  a  certain  occasion,  ''He  could  there 
do  no  mighty  work  because  of  their  unbelief." 
But  this  means,  Ave  may  suppose,  that  He  knew 
the  conditions  too  Avell  to  make  a  failing  attempt. 

Our  Lord's  return  Avas  at  a  critical  moment. 
The  scribes  were  making  the  most  of  the  disciples' 
failure,  and  no  doubt  increasing  their  dismay. 
There  had  gathered  a  multitude  besides.  And 
thus  the  Master's  return  Avas  most  Avelcome  to  all 
who  were  distressed  by  the  failure.  The  father 
had  begun  to  lose  hope.  But  our  Lord's  kindly 
interest  draws  the  Avhole  story  from  him,  of  the 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  65 

sudden  cruel  seizures,  and  his  own  distress;  and 
then  comes  the  desperate  appeal,  ''If  Thou  canst 
do  anything,  have  compassion  upon  us  and  help 
us."  Our  Lord  repeats  this  "if  Thou  canst"  in 
His  reply:  "li  thou  canst  believe,  all  things  are 
possible  to  him  that  believeth."  And  then  the  man 
cried  out  with  tears:  ''Lord,  I  believe,  help  Thou 
mine  unbelief."  And  at  once  the  Lord  heals  the 
boy  with  a  Avord,  charging  the  dumb  and  deaf 
spirit  to  come  out  of  him. 

'No  more  elementary  faith  is  expressed  any- 
where in  the  Gospel  than  the  man's  saying,  ''If 
Thou  canst  do  anything."  There  is  not  enough 
faith  for  a  creed,  but  there  is  just  enough  for  a 
prayer.  If  there  is  enough  for  a  prayer  the  Lord 
will  answer,  and  His  first  answer  was  to  encourage 
belief,  as  much  as  there  was,  and  tell  the  father 
that  faith  recognized  no  impossibilities. 

Beyond  the  censure  implied  in  the  exclama- 
tion "O  faithless  generation,"  when  the  boy  was 
brought  to  Him  and  He  had  been  told  of  His 
disciples'  failure,  our  Lord  said  nothing  to  His 
disciples  until  they  asked  Him  privately  why  they 
had  failed.  Then  He  answers  that  it  was  because 
of  their  unbelief;  that  if  they  had  "faith  as  a 
grain  of  mustard  seed,"  they  would  be  able  to  "say 
to  this  mountain,  be  thou  removed  to  yonder  place, 
and  it  would  remove,  and  that  nothing  should  be 


66  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

impossible  to  them."  Then  He  adds,  "Howbeit, 
this  kind  can  come  forth  by  nothing  but  by  prayer 
and  fasting. '^ 

Let  us  take  the  parts  of  this  answer  in  reverse 
order.  This  Church  has  high  ideas  of  the  au- 
thority of  the  ministry.  That  authority  is  stated 
to  be  derived  from  Christ,  and  yet  she  is  singularly 
slow  to  have  the  ministry  speak  with  authority. 
The  great  acts  of  the  ministry,  like  the  absolution 
in  the  Holy  Communion  and  the  Consecration  of 
the  Eucharist,  are  done  by  prayer.  "Prayer  and 
fasting"  were  frequent  companions  of  our  Lord's 
ministry.  If,  then,  the  Church  seems  to  be  weak 
in  her  conflict  with  the  dark  powers  of  evil,  it  is 
because  she  is  not  using  her  two  great  engines. 
Our  services  are  so  beautiful,  our  liturgy  so  ap- 
pealing, that  sometimes  we  forget  that  the  Church 
is  not  here  just  for  us,  and  our  delight  in  her. 
There  are  those  possessed  with  devils.  And  we 
must  enter  into  deadly  conflict  on  their  behalf. 

Then  as  to  the  quality  and  power  of  real  faith, 
faith  "as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed."  That,  our 
Lord  says,  is  as  "the  least  of  all  seeds."  But  a 
seed  is  alive,  and  will  grow  if  it  has  any  chance 
at  all.  The  saying  about  the  mountain  and  its 
removal  is,  of  course,  a  figure  of  speech,  an  at- 
tempt to  say  how  mighty  faith  is.  If  the  Trans- 
figuration was  on  Mt.   Hermon,   as  is  supposed, 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  67 

then  this  miracle  was  in  view  of  Hermon,  and  that 
vast  mountain  was  used  to  point  the  figure.  But 
taking  it  literally  would  meet  with  this  difficulty: 
faith  only  wants  to  act  according  to  the  will  of 
God,  and  we  do  not  know  anything  of  this  will 
which  would  encourage  us  to  try  to  move  an  actual 
mountain.  But,  figuratively,  any  difficulty  is  a 
mountain,  if  it  is  a  big  enough  difficulty.  And 
nobody  removes  difficulties  who  regards  them  as 
impossibilities. 

The  Panama  canal  has  been  dug  with  steam 
shovels,  and  faith.  It  never  would  have  been 
begun  without  faith.  Plenty  of  people  had  no 
faith,  and  they  were  opposed  even  to  attempting 
in  any  way  to  attack  such  a  big  undertaking;  but 
somebody  furnished  the  faith.  There  were  actual 
mountains  of  earth,  there  was  the  mountain  of 
disease,  there  was  the  mountain  of  political  oppo- 
sition, there  was  the  mountain  of  the  record  of 
failure;  all  these  have  been  moved,  until  now  we 
see  the  end.  This  has  been  done  by  men  through 
faith,  not  in  God,  but  merely  in  the  possibility  of 
the  thing.  But  faith  in  God  is  faith  in  the 
Almighty. 

This  is  the  difference  between  human  faith 
and  real  divine  faith.  The  faith  that  it  took  to 
dig  the  canal  was  really  faith  in  man.  It  was  just 
something  bigger  than  had  yet  been  done.     It  is 


68  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

not  an  adequate  illustration  of  the  faith  into  which 
Christ  would  have  us  enter.  The  disciples  had 
cast  out  devils  before.  They  probably  had  a 
human  expectation  that  they  would  succeed  this 
time,  faith  in  themselves,  based  upon  their  pre- 
vious experience.  But  it  wasn't  enough.  When 
the  Saviour  says  '^nothing  shall  be  impossible"  to 
real  faith,  it  is  because  nothing  is  impossible  with 
God,  and  faith  unites  to  God  and  gives  us  access 
to  His  power  according  to  our  union  with  Him, 
that  is,  according  to  His  love. 

So  prayer — the  voice  of  faith,  but  the  voice 
of  humility — and  fasting — the  keen  test  of  motive, 
the  purifier  of  desire — are  our  best  engines  still  of 
moving  the  mountains  of  sin,  of  darkness,  of  evil 
possession.  When  the  Lord  healed  this  boy  He 
came  fresh  from  the  contemplation  of  the  Cross 
which  was  waiting  for  Him.  Let  us  also  con- 
template the  Cross.  This  will  give  us  the  assur- 
ance we  may  need  that  it  is  God's  Avill  to  destroy 
the  works  of  the  devil,  that  it  is  His  will  that  we 
should  cooperate  with  Him;  that  no  questionings 
of  scribes,  no  sense  that  too  much  has  been  asked 
of  us,  may  prevent  us,  or  hold  us  back  from  a 
whole-hearted  surrender  to  God's  service. 

One  man  and  God  are  always  a  majority.  We 
learn  from  St.  Paul  that  he  was  for  a  time  much 
occupied  with  his  own  afflictions,  but  that  finally 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  69 

he  had  the  message:  "My  grace  is  sufficient  for 
thee;  for  My  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weak- 
ness." From  that  assurance  it  was  not  a  very  long 
step  to  an  outlook  on  the  world  and  work  com- 
pletely in  harmony  with  the  words  of  Christ. 
Christ  said  "nothing  shall  be  impossible"  ;  St.  Paul 
confesses,  "I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ  that 
strengtheneth  me."  If  we  cannot  say  that  yet, 
let  us  hope  the  grain  of  mustard  seed  will  grow. 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

XI. THE    LAW    OF    FORGIVENESS. 

How  oft  shall  my  brother  sin  against  me  and  I 
forgive  him?  till  seven  times? — St.  Matt.  18:  21. 

E  know  the  fundamental  error  which 
underlay  this  question  of  Simon 
Peter,  but  we  do  not  often  stop  to 
consider  how  great  an  advance  it 
marks  in  his  mind.  How  many  people  are  likely 
to  be  put  into  such  close  relations  to  us  that  they 
could  have  the  opportunity  of  sinning  against  us 
seven  times  in  the  same  way  ? 

Humanly  speaking,  a  seven-fold  forgiveness 
seems  a  very  large  one.  But  of  course  there  are 
relationships  that  are  constant,  or  approximately 
so,  that  do  many  times  multiply  the  opportunities 
for  repeated  complaint.  Until  a  man  is  really 
converted,  he  is  morally  sure  to  fail  on  his  weak 
side  as  often  as  the  special  temptation  arises.  The 
Psalmist^s  illustration  of  Israel's  failure,  "Start- 
ing aside  like  a  broken  bow,''  shows  what  we  mean. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  71 

Every  time  you  draw  the  bow  you  reveal  the 
defect.  And  family  life  is  so  hard  at  times  be- 
cause the  faults  we  have  to  encounter  and  contend 
with  are  habits,  characteristics,  which  occur  not 
once  or  seven  times,  but  are  constantly  recurring. 

This  illustrates  of  how  little  consequence  a 
seven-fold  forgiveness  could  be  as  between  real 
brothers.  But  it  is  doubtful  if  Peter  really  meant 
to  limit  the  question  to  actual  brothers.  We  can 
believe  that,  not  only  would  he  have  included, 
according  to  Jewish  custom,  all  his  fairly  intimate 
relations  among  his  brothers,  but  that  he  had  been 
long  enough  with  Christ  to  have  learned  to  read 
brotherhood  in  a  much  larger  sense. 

The  Jews  used  many  numbers  in  a  symbolic 
sense.  How  widely  this  was  done  perhaps  we 
cannot  easily  find  out.  But  seven  was  in  a  special 
sense  regarded  by  them  as  the  perfect  number,  the 
symbol  of  perfection.  But  it  was  easy  to  forget 
that  it  was  a  symbol,  and  therefore  easy  to  substi- 
tute it  for  perfection  itself.  This  was  the  trap 
Peter  had  fallen  into.  Forgiveness,  to  him,  was  a 
specific  act.  It  had  no  necessary  connection  with 
love.  It  need  not  be  spiritual.  And  you  can  see 
how  its  quality  would  be  vitiated  by  thus  limiting 
it  as  a  duty  to  a  fixed  number  of  repetitions.  At 
the  sixth  or  seventh  time  the  mind  would  have 
begun  already  to  expect  the  eighth  offense,  to  be 


72  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

on  the  lookout  for  it,  and  to  be  in  a  subconscious 
way  occupied  with  the  revenge. 

Think,  too,  of  the  reasons  underlying  forgive- 
ness. We  forgive  for  our  own  sakes,  our  own 
characters  to  a  large  degree.  But  it  is  also  im- 
possible not  to  think  of  people  who  sin  against  us 
as  either  more  or  less  deserving  of  forgiveness, 
and  this  desert  is  a  good  deal  connected  with  their 
own  attitude  toward  their  offense.  They  might 
commit  it  ten  times  in  continued,  deliberate  ob- 
stinacy, and  on  the  eleventh  time  they  might  begin 
to  be  sorry.  Then  would  be  the  real  time  for 
forgiveness.  The  previous  leniency  would  have 
been  a  good  thing  for  the  man  exercising  it,  but 
it  would  not  have  begun  to  do  any  good  outside 
until  the  offender  was  sorry.  The  main  thing  in 
life  is  character. 

Our  Lord's  answer  to  Peter  took,  as  it  were, 
two  steps  at  once.  Peter  could  have  hardly  taken 
it  in  without  at  least  two  mental  actions.  ^^I  say 
not  unto  you  until  seven  times,  but  until  seventy 
times  seven."  The  thought  of  seven  as  the  perfect 
number  still  runs  through  the  figures  given  by  our 
Lord,  but  Peter  is  made  to  think  at  once,  ''Why, 
here  is  a  perfect  number,  too!  Here  is  a  thought 
of  intensified,  multiplied  perfection,  if  such  a 
thing  be  possible !     And  as  there  can  be  no  such 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  73 

thing  as  more  perfect  perfection,  I  must  have 
taken  the  thought  of  seven  in  a  wrong  way." 

For  what  would  seventy  times  seven  amount  to 
in  numbers  ?  It  would  be  four  hundred  and 
ninety.  So,  as  we  would  never  be  likely  to  have 
as  many  opportunities  for  forgiveness  with  one 
person  as  that,  and  as  we  couldn't  possibly  keep 
count,  and  it  would  make  us  permanently  unhappy 
to  try  to  do  so,  why,  it  is  plain  that  we  must 
always  forgive.  That  is,  we  must  preserve  the 
same  attitude  toward  the  offender  that  God  does, 
or  that  a  wise  and  tender  and  patient  father  does, 
hoping  for  the  day  of  betterment,  the  change  of 
heart,  the  work  of  love. 

We  often  hear  it  said  that  first  offenders  ought 
to  be  more  leniently  dealt  with  than  old  hands  in 
sin.  But  this  has  limitations.  The  time  for  pun- 
ishment, if  ever,  is  the  first  offense,  and  the  pun- 
ishment ought  to  be  sharp,  but  then  it  ought  to  be 
short.  And  when  it  is  through  with  it  ought  never 
to  be  mentioned  again.  Society  has  an  unjust  way 
of  making  a  short  jail  sentence  last  forever.  But 
if  the  punishment  of  the  first  offense  does  not 
succeed  in  making  the  offender  realize  what  he  has 
done,  we  may  have  to  wait  a  good  while  before  we 
get  results.  In  work  with  souls,  as  with  minds, 
we  have  to  deal  with  something  very  like  a  time- 


74  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

lock.  It  may  be  the  four  hundred  and  ninetieth 
time  that  counts. 

There  is  a  very  simple  chemical  experiment 
taken  from  the  manufacture  of  friction  matches, 
which  is  sometimes  used  to  make  a  little  fun  in 
a  school  laboratory.  Three  substances  are  used  in 
some  kinds  of  matches,  but  a  match  can  be  made 
with  sulphur  and  chlorate  of  potash  alone.  These 
have  to  be  combined  in  the  most  intimate  propor- 
tions before  friction  will  set  them  off.  In  the  ex- 
periment, a  green  boy  is  brought  in  to  mix  a  small 
quantity  of  flowers  of  sulphur  and  chlorate  of 
potash  with  a  mortar  and  pestle.  He  can  mix, 
and  mix  again  for  several  minutes,  and  nothing 
much  happens — it  all  happens  at  once ! 

This  is  what  happens  in  family  life.  First 
correction  may  have  failed.  A  boy  or  girl  ap- 
parently settles  into  thoughtlessness  of  any  im- 
provement in  promptness,  in  neatness,  in  consider- 
ation for  the  law  of  the  house.  Correction  can  be 
only  gently  applied,  the  friction  of  love.  It  may 
take  years  to  show  improvement,  and  then  conver- 
sion, or  something  analogous,  happens  all  at  once. 
The  four  hundred  and  ninety  first  time  has  come, 
and  brought  the  perfect  result  of  forgiveness. 

Our  Lord  enforces  this  lesson  by  the  Parable 
of  the  Unmerciful  Servant.  He  has  been  forgiven 
by  an  indulgent  master  a  huge  sum,  too  huge  for 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  75 

any  man  to  pay  in  a  lifetime.  Immediately  on 
being  declared  free,  he  goes  out  and  finds  a  fellow 
servant  who  owes  him  a  reasonable  amount,  which 
could  easily  be  worked  off  if  some  accommodation 
were  showed.  But  nothing  is  too  severe  for  the 
collection  of  the  little  debt.  No  mercy  is  given, 
no  facility  or  opportunity  granted.  This  shows 
that  forgiveness  has  done  the  first  servant  no  good, 
and  it  is  therefore  withdrawn.  Forgiveness  stands 
as  an  offer  for  us  as  long  as  there  remains  the 
least  hope  of  returning  good.  But  it  seems  im- 
possible for  forgiveness  to  be  truly  accepted  with- 
out love.  The  love  may  be  rudimentary  at  first, 
but,  as  the  sense  of  forgiveness  grows,  the  love 
should  grow. 

The  man  who  owed  the  ten  thousand  talents 
had  no  sense  of  what  we  may  call  the  proportion 
of  virtue.  The  vast  sum  apparently  meant  nothing 
to  him;  the  hundred  pence  meant  a  great  deal. 
And  so  we  hardly  ever  realize  the  greatness  of 
our  debt  to  mercy.  We  are  all  really  hopelessly 
in  debt.  We  have  nothing  to  pay.  All  we  might 
try  to  pay  with,  already  belongs  to  God.  And  yet 
we  accept  the  statement  of  the  Divine  pardon  with 
a  sort  of  nonchalance,  promising  insincere  and  im- 
possible things,  if  only  we  may  escape  from  con- 
demnation. We  think  more  of  God  as  the  ordainer 
of  punishment  than  as  the  Author  of  Life.     And 


76  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

we  have  no  mercy  for  others.  Was  ever  any  image 
more  pathetic  than  this  of  Isaiah  ?  "All  day  long 
have  I  stretched  out  My  hands  unto  a  disobedient 
and  gainsaying  people."  This  describes  both  our 
Heavenly  Father  and  us.  He  has  bestowed  His 
forgiveness  unto  seventy  times  seven.  "Freely  ye 
have  received,  freely  give." 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

XII. ETERNAL    LIFE. 

What  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life? — St.  Luke 
10:25;  18:18. 

F  all  the  times  that  this  important 
question  was  put  to  our  Lord,  we  have 
the  record  of  but  two.  The  first  time, 
the  question  is  represented  as  being 
asked  by  "a  certain  lawyer."  When  we  read  in 
our  version  that  the  lawyer  ^^tempted"  Christ,  it 
seems  unnecessary  to  assume  that  the  word  means 
any  more  here  than  testing,  or  proving.  The 
Queen  of  Sheba  came  to  prove  Solomon  with  hard 
questions,  but  it  was  not  meant  in  an  unfriendly 
way.  This  lawyer  showed  considerable  spiritual 
insight.  For,  when  our  Lord  returned  his  ques- 
tion by  asking  him  what  was  "written  in  the  Law  ?" 
the  man  went  directly  for  an  answer  to  those  two 
precepts  which  our  Lord  Himself  elsewhere  has 
described  as  ''the  First  and  Great  Commanment," 


78  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

and  ^'the  second,  which  was  like  unto  it,"  saying 
at  the  same  time  that  both  the  Law  and  the 
Prophets  hung  upon  those  two.  This  answer  our 
Lord  approved.  Fortunately,  the  lawyer  was 
moved  then  to  ask  another  question,  "Who  is  my 
neighbor  ?"  And  to  that  question  we  owe  the 
beautiful  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan. 

The  second  occasion  we  have  recorded  is 
known  as  the  episode  of  the  Rich  Young  Man,  or 
the  young  Ruler,  as  he  is  described  by  St.  Luke; 
for  we  have  three  accounts  of  the  story.  In  this 
case  there  is  no  doubt  of  the  choice  character  of 
the  person  inquiring.  He  was  greatly  concerned 
about  salvation,  and  our  Lord  was  so  drawn  to  him 
that  He  offered  him  what  looks  like  the  same 
terms  He  gave  His  apostles.  But  at  the  be- 
ginning He  throws  back  the  young  man,  as 
He  had  the  lawyer,  upon  his  own  stores  of  Scrip- 
ture knowledge,  and  says,  "If  thou  wouldst  en- 
ter into  life,  keep  the  Commandments" ;  and  when 
the  young  man  enquires  for  a  supposed  new  law, 
refers  him  to  those  old  moral  precepts  which  the 
young  ruler  instantly  asserts  he  has  "kept  from 
his  youth  up."  Then  our  Lord,  who  undoubtedly 
recognized  that  this  answer  was  made  in  good 
faith,  and  had  some  basis  of  truth,  is  said  to  have 
looked  upon  His  visitor  with  peculiar  love,  and  to 
have  answered,  "One  thing  thou  lackest.     Go  and 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  79 

sell  all  that  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor,  and 
thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven,  and  come  and 
follow  Me."  The  young  man  is  said  to  have  been 
"sad  at  that  saying,"  and  to  have  "gone  away 
sorrowful,"  "for  he  was  very  rich."  He  could  not 
have  accepted  an  apostleship  on  those  terms. 

I^ow  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  our  Lord 
meant  to  say  that  the  giving  away  of  his  fortune 
was  what  would  win  eternal  life  for  the  young 
ruler.  What  He  did  mean  was  that  the  fortune 
stood  in  his  way.  It  prevented  him  from  having 
full  faith  in  God.  To  him  it  would  have  been 
possible  to  say  that  God  takes  care  of  us,  and  he 
would  have  been  able  to  give  it  an  apparently  full 
assent;  but  not  so  that  he  could  have  trusted  him- 
self to  God  so  completely  that  he  would  have  been 
willing  to  try  life  without  money  in  hand. 

Our  Lord  had  not  asked  him  to  do  anything 
that  the  twelve  apostles  had  not  done.  And  some 
of  them  had  not  been  exactly  poor.  Zebedee,  the 
father  of  James  and  John,  had  his  own  boat,  and 
his  hired  servants,  and  was  probably  esteemed 
well  off  by  people  of  his  own  trade.  Matthew  was 
probably  in  the  way  of  making  considerable  money 
as  a  publican,  if  he  had  been  willing  to  do  as 
other  publicans  did.  They  had  left  all  and  fol- 
lowed Christ,  and  that  was  what  Christ  asked  the 
young  ruler  to  do.     And  what  Christ  had  to  offer, 


80  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

even  in  this  life,  naturally  considered  does  not 
seem  so  small,  that  is,  if  you  have  had  experience 
of  what  life  really  offers  that  has  a  good  taste. 
When  Peter  asked,  "Lo,  we  have  left  all  and  fol- 
lowed Thee,  what  shall  we  have,  therefore  ?"  Our 
Lord  answers,  "Manifold  more  in  this  present 
time,"  but  "with  persecutions,"  and  "in  the  end 
eternal  life." 

The  young  man  here,  and  the  lawyer  before, 
emphasized  the  idea  in  their  own  minds  that 
eternal  life  could  be  won  by  works :  "What  shall 
I  dof  The  answer  to  the  lawyer,  or  the  way  in 
which  he  was  made  to  answer  himself,  is  Love. 
But  Love  is  not  a  work.  It  is  a  condition  of  the 
heart.  It  can  be  called  a  work,  however,  if  it  be 
thought  of  as  an  effect,  as  well  as  the  cause  of  all 
good  works.  True  love  cannot  exist  without  faith, 
and  true  faith  cannot  exist  without  love. 

The  young  man  was  serious  when  he  asserted 
himself  to  have  kept  all  the  commandments,  for 
he  did  not  see  so  deeply  as  the  lawyer  did  what 
was  involved  in  keeping  them.  And  what  our 
Lord  asked  of  him  was  also  love.  When  you  can 
give  up  anything  for  another  cause,  you  show  that 
you  love  that  cause  best  for  which  you  are  Avilling 
to  make  the  sacrifice.  If  you  love  God  above  all 
things,  then  you  will  not  let  f kings  come  between 
you  and  God.     If  you  love  things  better  than  you 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  81 

love  God,  you  are  a  practical  idolater.     God  is  not 
your  God. 

Almost  everybody  nowadays  has,  either  from 
one  point  of  view  or  another,  great  possessions. 
People  generally  have  the  means  of  securing  com- 
forts which  even  the  richest  in  our  Lord's  day 
never  had.  A  man  is  really  rich  if  he  can  gratify 
his  principal  tastes.  But,  of  course,  very  few  of 
us  think  we  are  rich.  But  we  have  enough  to 
make  a  test  case  of  our  own  condition.  What  the 
Gospel  sets  before  us  is  eternal  life.  The  terms 
on  which  this  life  is  offered  to  us  are  really  every- 
where the  same,  though  they  seem  to  vary.  What 
makes  them  seem  to  vary  is  the  fact  that  our  pos- 
sessions vary.  But  our  possessions  are  not  of  so 
much  importance  in  the  matter  as  our  attitude 
toward  them.  If  we  get  so  dependent  upon  them, 
either  mentally  or  actually,  that  they  prevent  us 
from  doing  a  loving  duty  to  God  and  man,  then 
we  do  not  own  them,  but  they  own  us.  The  rich 
young  man  thought  he  had  great  possessions,  but 
they  had  him.  But  possessions  not  only  vary 
between  individuals,  but  the  same  man  has  more 
or  less  property  at  different  times.  And  most  of 
us  have  had  enough  experience  of  varying  degrees 
of  fortune  that  we  can  really  examine  the  question, 
whether  a  larger  salary,  or  bank  account,  has  ever 
made  any  substantial  difference  in  our  happiness. 


82  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

We  really  can't  make  an  argument  that  true  happi- 
ness has  anything  to  do  with  it.  We  can  argue  for 
comfort  as  the  result  of  riches,  but  every  kind  of 
increase  in  property  brings  more  anxiety  than  any- 
thing else. 

Take  the  same  man  at  intervals  five  years 
apart  in  his  life.  Suppose  at  the  first  date  he  has 
a  thousand  dollars  in  the  bank,  and  a  salary  of  a 
thousand  dollars.  His  thousand  in  the  bank  shows 
that  he  can  save  a  little  on  his  income,  or  we  are 
supposing  that  to  be  the  case.  Such  a  man  has 
very  little  anxiety  about  life.  He  can  easily 
satisfy  his  modest  wants,  as  long  as  they  stay 
modest.  If  the  call  of  God  came  to  him  to  give  up 
his  business,  and  devote  himself  entirely  to  God's 
service,  it  would  not  be  very  hard  for  him  to  yield 
himself  up.  He  has  had  enough ;  but  not  enough 
to  fetter  him  in  turning  to  higher  things. 

Let  i^ve  years  pass  away.  His  salary  has  been 
doubled.  He  has  enough  now  in  the  bank  to  make 
its  investment  a  serious  question.  A  special  part- 
nership may  be  open  to  him.  The  call  to  Divine 
service  comes  again,  and  this  time  the  money  is  in 
the  way.  The  equation  looks  alike  in  each  case. 
We  call  the  man  A.  and  his  unknown  amount  of 
property  "x,"  because  we  can  assign  any  value  to 
"x"  that  we  please.  Then  A  plus  "x"  minus 
"x,"  equals  A,  no  matter  what  value  you  give  "x." 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  83 

(The  man,  plus  his  property,  minus  his  property, 
equals  the  man.)  That  is  algebraically  true,  but 
not  morally  true,  because  morally  the  greater  the 
value  of  "x"  the  less  is  the  proportionate  value 
of  A  in  the  equation.  The  man  seems  to  shrink 
in  importance  as  compared  to  the  money.  So  the 
peculiar  insanity  that  lurks  for  millionaires  is  the 
fear  that  they  may  lose  their  money.  "If  riches 
increase,  set  not  your  heart  upon  them"  is  not 
only  religion,  but  common  sense. 

Our  Lord  does  not  ask  everyone  to  take  Him 
literally,  as  He  did  the  rich  young  man.  And 
some  of  us  might,  even  if  we  wanted  to  do  it,  have 
some  difficulty  in  disposing  of  all  of  our  property 
if  the  receivers  had  to  take  everything  we  had,  our 
liabilities  as  well  as  our  resources, and  we  can't 
morally  give  things  except  into  responsible  hands. 
What,  however,  all  of  us  are  certainly  required 
to  do  is  to  use  what  we  have  as  responsible  to 
God,  and  to  strive  to  be  just  as  good  servants  of 
God  through  what  we  have,  as  we  could  possibly 
be  without  it.  We  have  to  make  the  mental  dedi- 
cation of  everything,  if  we  are  to  keep  on  owning 
it.  We  ourselves  must  be  Christ's.  If  we  are 
Christ's,  then  what  we  have  is  Christ's.  Under  no 
circumstances  can  we  get  more  than  our  board 
and  our  clothes  out  of  it,  no  matter  how  we  use  it. 

But  it  will  certainly   increase   our  peace   of 


84  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

mind  if  we  can  approve,  and  think  Christ  would 
approve,  of  where  we  put  it.  Christ  apparently 
says  that  money  can  go  to  heaven,  not  actually,  of 
course,  but  as  a  transferred  account,  a  transferred 
force.  If  it  stays  here,  a  man  can  die  a  hundred 
million  dollars  poor;  if  it  works  for  God,  he  can 
go  to  heaven  a  thousand  friends  rich.  So,  from 
a  responsible  point  of  view,  a  man  ought  to  look 
upon  the  rapid  increase  of  wealth  with  a  sort  of 
prayerful  terror.  ^'Let  not  me,  O  Lord,  be 
Sveighed  in  the  balance  and  found  wanting'  with 
these  enlarged  responsibilities.  Let  me  not  be 
tempted  to  think  of  my  wealth  as  having  any 
rights,  my  estate  as  anything  that  has  claims  in 
itself.  Let  me  not  strive  to  increase  it,  or  protect 
it,  by  unlawful,  unfair  or  unmerciful  means. 
Help  me  to  pay  my  taxes  as  cheerfully  as  when 
they  were  small;  help  me  to  look  beyond,  and  to 
Thee.  Enlarge  my  love  to  Thy  family,  whether 
mine  be  large  or  small.  If  riches  increase,  let  my 
outlook,  my  sympathy,  my  brotherly  help,  in- 
crease. If  it  is  hard  to  enter  into  the  kingdom, 
still  let  me  enter;  for  it  is  dark  outside." 

Let  us  change  the  equation  a  little.  We  spoke 
of  A.  plus  "x,"  let  us  rather  speak  of  A.  plus 
"x"  plus  "y.''  Let  ^^y"  be  love.  Then  if  "y" 
be  large  enough,  though  ''x"  be  zero,  a  man  can 
work  hard  and  sleep  soft.    But  if  "y"  be  too  small, 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  85 

though  '^x"  be  ever  so  large,  the  man  will  have  to 
work  just  as  hard,  but  he  will  sleep  cold. 

For  love  is  life;  and,  because  love  is  also 
knowledge,  we  may  say,  "This  is  Life  Eternal, 
that  they  may  (love)  Thee  the  only  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent.'' 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

XIII. THE   WAY  HOME. 

Lord,  we  know  not  whither  Thou  goest,  and  how  can 
we  know  the  way? — St.  John  14:  5. 

HERE  are  no  questions  oftener  in  the 
minds  of  serious  men  who  find  them- 
selves in  the  midst  of  mysterious  life 
without  their  volition,  than  the 
Whither  V  and  the  "Way."  Our  Lord  had  just 
begun  a  great  discourse  to  His  disciples  alone,  one 
which,  if  pastoral  experience  proves  anything,  is 
dearer  to  Christians  than  almost  any  other  of  His 
utterances;  and  had  begun  to  tell  about  His 
Father's  House,  and  the  many  chambers  there  for 
the  children  when  they  came  homo,  and  had  said, 
^Whither  I  go  ye  know  and  the  Way  ye  know." 
The  ^Whither"  was,  of  course,  to  His  Father's 
House,  to  prepare  for  the  coming  thither  of  the 
disciples  who  had  believed  on  Him,  and  those  who 
should  afterwards  believe  on  Him  ^^through  their 
word." 

But  Thomas  was  of  a  peculiar  temperament, 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  87 

sad  and  foreboding,  and  interrupts  with  a  very  im- 
proper contradiction,  which  nevertheless,  we  can- 
not help  being  glad  that  he  made.  "Lord,  we 
know  not  whither  Thou  goest,  and  how  can  we 
know  the  way?"  And  to  this  our  Lord  answers 
with  one  of  His  most  wonderful  utterances:  "I 
am  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life:  no  man 
Cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me.  If  ye  had 
known  Me  ye  should  have  known  the  Father,  and 
henceforth  ye  know  Him,  and  have  seen  Him." 
It  takes  a  good  while  for  words  like  these  to  sink 
into  men's  minds,  and  Philip  shows  immediately 
that,  like  us,  he  often  needs  to  hear  again. 

But  let  us  take  the  answer  to  Thomas  as  it 
stands,  for  it  is  of  very  broad  application.  It  is 
hard,  however,  to  put  out  of  mind  while  we  con- 
sider it  another  wonderful  description  of  Himself 
by  our  Lord,  made  to  the  Apostle  St.  John  in  the 
Isle  of  Patmos:  "I  am  Alpha  and  Omega,  the 
Beginning  and  the  Ending,  which  was,  and  is,  and 
is  to  come,  the  Almighty." 

Of  all  seekers,  none  have  done  more  service  to 
the  world  than  those  first  of  the  ancient  Greeks 
who  formulated,  for  the  men  of  all  time,  the 
questions  which  had  to  be. asked.  At  the  dawn  of 
Greek  philosophy,  as  far  as  we  have  the  record 
of  the  seekers,  the  first  question  that  men  asked 
was,    What    was    the   Beginning   of    everything? 


88  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

Their  word  for  beginning  was  Arche,^  the  very 
word  used  by  Christ  in  the  Revelation.  The  phil- 
osophers answered  their  own  question,  or  guessed 
at  the  answer  variously.  Some  said  it  was  water; 
some  said  it  was  fire;  some  said  it  was  number; 
some  said  it  was  constant  flux,  or  becoming;  some 
said  it  Avas  Mind ;  and  by  and  by  the  question  wore 
itself  out ;  because  men  indeed  thought  some  of  the 
answers  clever,  and  interesting,  but  they  did  not 
feel  sure  enough  about  any  of  them.  And,  besides, 
they  began  to  be  more  interested  in  another  ques- 
tion, and  that  was,  What  is  the  End? 

In  the  Arche  had  been  included  all  that  is  in- 
volved in  the  search  for  reasons  and  first  prin- 
ciples, the  nature  of  things.  And,  in  the  End  they 
sought  was  involved  the  destiny  of  man  and  every- 
thing else,  the  purpose  or  goal  of  things,  and 
finally  something  like  Virtue,  or  the  thing  that  was 
worthy  to  be  sought  for  its  own  sake.  And  they 
got  so  many  answers  to  this  that  again  they  tired 
out.  The  word  they  used  for  the  End  was  Telos. 
And  that  is  the  word  used  in  the  Revelation  for 
the  Ending  which  Christ  also  claims  to  be. 

When  they  had  got  to  the  point  that  they  had 
tried  all  answers  to  both  these  questions  (and  pure 
philosophy  has  never  foimd  any  more  than  they 


*  Pronounce  it  Ar-che. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  89 

did  then  in  the  long  ago),  thej  began  asking  a 
third  question,  born  partly  of  their  perplexity,  and 
partly  growing  out  of  the  search  for  virtue,  What 
is  the  true  Way  to  live?  This  they  called  the 
Ethos,  from  which  we  get  our  word  Ethics,  the 
science  of  morals,  or  the  Way.  Just  as  the  Arche 
or  Alpha  was  the  study  of  the  Past  or  Was,  and 
the  Telos  was  the  study  of  the  Future  or  Is  to 
come,  so  the  Ethos  was  the  study  of  the  Now,  Life 
to-day. 

Put  with  this  now  our  Lord's  answer  to  the 
perplexity  of  St.  Thomas,  "I  am  the  Way,  the 
Truth  and  the  Life,"  and  you  see  that  Life  is  the 
Arche,  or  Beginning,  and  that  Truth  is  the  End 
or  purpose,  and  the  Way  being  in  the  same  Person 
is  both  the  True  Way  and  the  Living  Way.  These 
very  words  are  used  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 
So  that  Christ  claims  to  be  the  Satisfaction  and 
Answer  of  all  the  questions  about  life  which  can 
ever  be  asked.  It  was  no  wonder  that  the  old 
philosophers  were  not  satisfied  with  their  own 
answers.  They  were  not  satisfied,  because  they 
did  not  have  the  right  answer.  'Nor  is  it  peculiar 
that  all  the  questions  should  have  the  same  answer, 
since  it  is  plain  that  !N'ature  is  a  Unity.  And,  if 
it  came  from  God,  it  must  also  go  to  God,  and 
constantly  be  considered  in  the  light  of  the  will  of 
God. 


90  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

There  were  two  principal  schools  of  Greek  phil- 
osophy which  grew  out  of  the  study  of  Ethics. 
One  was  called  the  school  of  Epicurus,  and  taught 
that  the  right  way  to  live  was  to  regard  pleasure 
as  the  solution  of  life.  We  must  live,  according 
to  them,  so  as  to  get  the  most  out  of  life.  Of 
course,  some  of  them  regarded  higher  sorts  of 
pleasure  than  the  others,  some  looked  to  intel- 
lectual and  aesthetic  pleasures  with  the  rest.  But 
some  were  just  sensual.  So,  in  the  main,  this  was 
a  very  degrading  theory  in  its  results.  It  was  well 
expressed  in  a  phrase  as  old  as  Isaiah,  "Let  us  eat 
and  drink,  for  tomorrow  we  die."  The  other 
school,  much  nobler,  was  called  the  Stoic  school, 
from  the  Stoa,  or  porch,  where  their  philosophy 
was  first  taught.  They  taught  reverence  for 
virtue,  the  life  of  gravity,  moderation  and  reason. 
They  had  some  great  followers,  but  could  not  get 
over  the  feeling  that  life  was  in  some  way  bad; 
and  when  they  could  not  endure  things  any  longer, 
they  simply  killed  themselves. 

Now  how  different  from  "the  Way"  as  set  forth 
by  Christ!  He  would  not  have  us  live  without 
Pleasure,  but  He  would  not  have  us  mistake  what 
pleasure  really  is.  He  teaches  the  delight  of  duty, 
not  merely  the  virtue  of  it.  The  Way  is  the  path 
of  self  sacrifice,  but  it  is  made  sweet  with  love. 
So  life  is  not,  as  the  Stoics  thought,  evil;  it  is  a 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  91 

precious  gift,  a  probation,  a  good  school  of  pre- 
paration for  higher  things.  So  that  suicide  spells 
defeat,  whereas  the  Christian  believes  in  victory. 
Our  Lord  says,  "In  the  world  ye  shall  have  tribu- 
lation; but  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome  the 
world." 

Everything,  therefore,  is,  as  we  say,  all  of  a 
piece.  The  Beginning  of  everything,  the  first 
letter  of  the  Alphabet  of  Wisdom,  the  Alpha  or 
Greek  A,  is  founded  in  the  character  of  God,  who 
is  Love.  The  End  of  everything,  the  Omega,  the 
last  letter  of  the  Greek  alphabet,  standing 
relatively  where  our  Z  does,  is  in  the  Bosom  and 
Home  of  our  God,  who  is  Love,  the  manifestation 
of  the  Eather,  who  is  "the  Brightness  of  the 
Father's  glory,"  and  "the  Express  Image  of  His 
Person";  or,  as  the  Greek  word  puts  it,  the 
"Character"  of  the  Eather.  This  is  why  no  man 
Cometh  to  our  Heavenly  Eather  but  by  Christ,  and 
there  can  be  no  other  revelation.  This  is  why  we 
need  nothing  but  Christ,  and  He  is  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  mind  as  well  as  the  heart;  sought  by 
the  Wise  Men,  and  sought  by  the  Shepherds,  the 
Desire  of  All  nations;  Wisdom,  Righteousness, 
and  Life. 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

XIV. PROFIT    THROUGH    AFFLICTION. 

Master,  who  did  sin,  this  man  or  his  parents,  that 
he  was  horn  hlind? — St.  John  9:2. 

OW  and  then  the  disciples  appear  as 
if  they  were  standing,  or  trying  to 
stand,  in  the  way  of  Christ's  benefi- 
cent purposes.  They  could  not  un- 
derstand why  He  should  allow  people  to  impose 
upon  Him.  At  other  times  they  were  made  the 
ministers  of  His  good  will,  but  they  never  seemed 
to  initiate  anything.  See,  for  instance,  with  what 
different  eyes  Christ  looked  upon  suffering !  They 
saw  this  man  just  as  soon  as  Christ  did,  and  He 
appears  to  have  waited  for  them  to  speak  about 
him.  One  would  naturally  suppose  that  they 
would  have  suggested  that  our  Lord  should  heal 
the  man.  They  knew  from  common  report  that 
he  had  been  born  blind,  but  nothing  seemed  to 
interest  them,  or  to  be  suggested  by  the  sight  of 
him,  but   a  theological  question.      He  was  blind. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  93 

he  was  a  beggar,  he  always  had  been  blind,  he 
would  probably  go  on  begging.  That  was  all  there 
was  to  it,  but  this  very  interesting  theological 
question. 

Our  Lord  does  not  decline  the  question,  but 
the  man  interests  Him  a  great  deal  more  than  the 
question.  So  He  answers  briefly,  but  does  not 
delay  to  heal,  and  in  so  doing  enlightened,  not 
only  the  man,  but  all  of  us. 

If  the  disciples  had  asked  merely  whether  the 
man  was  born  so  because  of  the  sin  of  his  parents, 
we  could  have  understood  the  question.  We  all 
know  the  Second  Commandment,  and  we  know 
that  thousands  of  babies  are  born  blind,  and  with 
other  terrible  troubles,  because  of  their  parents' 
sin.  But  it  is  hard  to  understand  at  first  what 
they  meant  by  asking  if  the  man  were  born  blind 
because  he  had  sinned.  He  could  not  sin,  we 
would  suppose,  before  he  was  born.  It  might  have 
put  a  different  face  on  it  if  the  Jews  had  believed 
in  transmigration,  the  successive  existence  of  the 
same  soul  in  different  bodies;  but  they  didn't. 
What  they  probably  did  speculatively  imagine  was, 
that  God  had  foreseen  some  sin  that  the  man  would 
commit,  and  thought  that  His  justice  might  punish 
such  a  sin  in  advance  of  its  commission,  or  His 
mercy  might  prevent  even  the  sin  by  taking  away 
the  sight  that  might  have  led  to  it.     Such  ideas 


94  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

have  really  had  considerable  influence  on  post- 
reformation  theology. 

Our  Lord,  however,  silences  the  speculation  at 
once,  and  says  that  the  cause  of  the  blindness  was 
no  specific  sin.  Of  course,  all  our  troubles  go  back 
to  sin,  our  sinful  condition ;  but  a  good  deal  of  our 
trouble  can  be  laid  at  no  particular  person's  door. 
This  it  had  been  darkly  felt  before  might  be  true, 
and  the  Book  of  Job  is  an  attempt  to  throw  some 
light  on  the  subject.  Nor  is  the  book,  although 
very  wonderful,  altogether  the  full  answer  that 
we  now  think  we  have.  It  is  just  as  true  that 
"whom  the  Lord  loveth  He  chasteneth,''  as  it  is 
that  "the  sins  of  the  fathers  are  visited  upon  the 
children."  And  in  this  particular  instance,  and 
in  the  case  of  the  death  of  Lazarus,  our  Lord  tells 
us  that  the  final  purpose  of  it  all  was  to  make  a 
signal  illustration  to  all  who  should  behold  of  the 
glory  and  works  of  God. 

This  blind  man  was  not  only  a  good  man,  but, 
if  we  can  judge  anything  about  him  from  a  few 
strokes  of  delineation,  he  was  a  very  good  man. 
Blindness  so  seldom  seems  to  embitter  people. 
This  man  had  great  faith  and  great  religious  in- 
sight. He  knew,  against  the  false  view  of  the 
Pharisees,  that  such  power  and  mercy  as  Christ 
showed  upon  him  could  not  proceed  from  an  evil 
source.     The  Jews  could  not  shake  his  faith  that 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  95 

Christ  was  good.  He  was  no  pessimist,  which 
shows  that  he  had  not  been,  on  the  whole,  unhappy. 
And,  of  course,  you  have  to  judge  life  as  a  whole. 
You  may  judge  maternity,  if  you  like,  wholly 
by  its  pains.  If  you  do,  you  judge  wrong.  And 
so  this  affliction,  which  lasted  from  the  man's 
birth  until  he  met  Christ,  then  resulted  in  an  un- 
clouded view  of  the  Saviour,  and  made  the  man 
a  disciple,  as  well  as  a  noble  example  of  con- 
stancy under  persecution. 

The  Gospels  have  not  done  away  with  the  mys- 
tery of  suffering.  They  have  added  mystery  to  it, 
for  the  Cross  stands  for  the  most  mysterious  of  all 
suffering.  But  the  Gospel  has  certainly  recon- 
ciled us  to  it  in  large  degree  through  the  Cross. 
It  has  showed  how  fruitful  it  is.  It  not  only 
has  some  uses,  but  far-reaching  fruits.  In  heal- 
ing this  blind  man  the  Saviour  not  only  helped 
him,  but  all  who  beheld,  and  all  who  have  ever 
heard  the  story  of  it.  They  show  us  that  a  man 
may  do  good  by  bearing  pain,  and  that  God  may 
be  doing  good  to  him  by  allowing  him  to  bear 
pain,  and  this  in  more  ways  than  one.  Our  pain- 
ful limitations  often  deprive  us  of  opportunities 
to  sin.  They  are  temptations  in  themselves,  but 
a  protection  against  other  temptations.  "He  that 
hath  suffered  in  the  flesh  hath  ceased  from  sin," 
is  a  text  that  probably  refers  to  that  extremity  of 


96  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

suffering  which  is  another  way  of  stating  death, 
yet  has  a  measure  of  truth  in  the  case  of  any  dis- 
abling suffering.  For  suffering  does  introduce  us 
into  the  life  of  sympathy,  which  is  a  greatly 
abounding  life,  as  some  here  might  be  able  to 
illustrate. 

The  way  in  which  the  Lord  healed  this  man 
is  deeply  interesting.  There  was  a  sort  of  appeal 
to  the  dead  sense.  He  first  said,  and  we  may 
believe  the  man  heard  Him,  "As  long  as  I  am  in 
the  world,  I  am  the  light  of  the  world."  Then 
He  spat  on  the  ground,  and  out  of  the  moist  clay 
made  a  lump  which  He  smeared  upon  the  man's 
eyes,  and  then  told  him  to  do  something  for  him- 
self :  "Go,  wash  in  the  pool  of  Siloam,"  a  mystical 
name,  given  as  meaning  "Sent."  The  man  obeyed 
exactly,  and  was  at  once  restored.  Our  Lord 
meanwhile  had  gone  on  His  way,  and  we  leave  the 
story  here. 

This  raises  the  question  whether  the  case, 
though  regarded  by  everybody  as  hopeless,  may 
not  have  been  a  very  simple  one  after  all.  Per- 
haps anyone  might  have  healed  him  at  any  time  by 
using  the  same  simple  methods,  but  nobody  tried. 
It  takes  a  great  deal  of  knowledge  to  know  when 
a  thing  is  simple.  "Since  the  world  began  hath 
it  not  been  heard  that  a  man  hath  opened  the  eyes 
of  one  that  was  born  blind."     That  was  a  state- 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  97 

ment  of  fact.  It  is  not  said  that  anyone  had  ever 
tried  to.  People  are  always  stating,  in  advance 
of  experiment,  that  things  are  impossible.  They 
philosophized  about  the  blindness,  stated  the  an- 
cient theory  of  impossibility,  and  offered  no 
remedies. 

Why  is  it  that  so  many  physicians  do  not  seem 
to  know  that  Christ,  more  than  anyone  else,  opened 
the  eyes  of  the  profession  to  the  possibilities  of 
healing?  And  in  old  times  it  was  not  only  that 
men  could  not  do  things  because  they  hadn't  tried ; 
they  did  not  care  to  try.  And  Christ  not  only 
taught  that  there  ought  to  be  a  remedy  for  every- 
thing, and  that  with  God  nothing  should  be  im- 
possible, but  He  made  us  want  to  imitate  Him, 
want  to  do  good.  How  the  zone  of  incurable  dis- 
eases has  been  narrowed  in  the  last  few  decades 
by  men  who,  with  a  faith  in  the  reasonableness  of 
nature,  have  sought  the  remedy  which  they  felt 
God  must  have  provided,  and  refused  to  be  satis- 
fied until  they  found  it!  Whether  all  these  men 
were  avowedly  Christian  or  not,  it  was  Christ  that 
emancipated  the  human  mind  and  heart;  it  was 
Christ  that  showed  that  God  knows  nothing  about 
incurableness,  and  if  He  doesn't  know  it,  there 
must  be  no  such  thing. 

Your  Christianity  and  mine  can  be  reasonably 
well  tested  by  our  attitude  in  the  presence  of  suf- 


98  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

fering.  Does  it  impel  you  most  to  detached  re- 
flection, or  give  you  a  desire  to  do  something  help- 
ful? And  if  we  have  a  desire  to  help,  is  it  the 
will  to  help,  or  just  the  wish?  If  it  be  just  the 
wish,  it  is  not  likely  to  amount  to  much.  If  it 
be  the  will,  it  is  sure  to  take  us  to  the  heart  of  the 
difficulty.  We  will  be  moved  to  find  out  if  God 
didn't  mean  that  we,  rather  than  someone  else, 
should  have  the  blessing  of  this  service.  It  may 
be,  in  spite  of  its  gravity  and  pain,  a  very  simple 
case  after  all. 

The  verdict  of  society  on  much  that  it  sees  is, 
''It  is  a  great  pity."  But  who  really  feels  the 
pity?  If  a  single  person  had  the  pity,  it  might 
be  all  that  was  needed.  But  often  it  is  so  great 
a  pity  that  no  single  person  has  enough.  The  case 
may  be  a  little  abandoned  child.  All  that  is 
wanted  is  one  mother  heart.  But  society  says 
someone  ought  to  suffer  for  abandoning  this  child, 
and  begins  to  spend  money,  not  on  the  child,  but 
to  apprehend  the  persons  responsible  for  leaving 
it.  Then  the  child  gets  sent  to  an  orphan  asylum, 
when  all  it  needed  was  a  mother.  Just  a  mother ! 
Why  is  it  so  much  easier  to  get  a  home  for  a  dog, 
sometimes,  than  for  a  child  ?  If  it  be  a  great  re- 
sponsibility to  take  a  child,  isn't  it  a  very  much 
larger  one  to  refuse  to  do  so  ? 

God  grant  to  us  to  accept  a  helpful  Gospel,  a 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  99 

Gospel  with  a  heart  and  with  hands,  a  Gospel  full 
of  the  simple  remedies  of  practical  kindness.  For 
such  a  life  is  full  of  the  Saviour,  and  in  it  we  will 
often  meet  more  than  in  more  ambitious  seeking 
for  truth:  the  Light  of  the  Knowledge  of  the 
Glory  of  God. 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

XV. THE   AUTHORITY    OVER    US. 

Is  it  lawful  to  give  tribute  to  Caesar,  or  not? — St. 
Matt.  22 :  17. 

HE  Jews  in  our  Lord's  time  were  com- 
pletely imder  foreign  domination,  ex- 
cept that  hardly  any  interference  oc- 
curred in  their  worship.  They  had 
never,  with  all  their  intense  national  feeling,  had 
more  than  a  semblance  of  independence,  except 
perhaps  for  a  few  months  under  Judas  Macca- 
baeus,  since  before  the  first  temple  had  been 
destroyed.  Even  under  the  Judean  kings  there 
had  been  successive  tributes  paid  to  Assyria, 
Egypt,  and  Babylon.  Then  came  the  captivity 
and  the  restoration  under  the  Persians,  but  that 
restoration  to  their  own  country  brought  no  inde- 
pendence. Then  came  Alexander's  conquest,  and 
then  the  strifes  between  the  dynasties  of  his  suc- 
cessors, which  made  Judea  the  shuttlecock  between 
Syria  and  Egypt,  until  just  before  the  Uomans 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  101 

came.  Then,  after  the  Romans  came,  there  was 
for  a  while  the  figment  of  a  Jewish  kingdom  under 
the  Edomite  Herod.  But  his  son  was  so  impossible 
a  ruler  that,  by  the  time  the  land  was  ready  for 
the  Gospel,  there  was  a  Eoman  governor  there, 
and  they  ''had  no  king  but  Caesar." 

They  hated  Caesar,  but  they  came  to  hate 
Christ  more.  They  hated  to  be  holy  more  than 
they  hated  to  bow  to  Rome.  And,  as  the  first 
temple  had  to  be  destroyed  because  men  filled  it 
with  idols  while  calling  it  a  temple  of  Jehovah, 
so  the  last  temple  fell  because  it  had  been  turned 
into  "a  den  of  robbers." 

The  Pharisees  knew  that  the  followers  of  our 
Lord  were  intensely  patriotic.  Galilee  was  always 
so.  They  knew  that  He  had  been  preaching  ''the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven."  They  hoped  that,  if  given 
occasion,  He  would  come  out  openly,  and  deny  the 
Roman  authority.  They  had  seen  Pilate  not  long 
before  mingle  the  blood  of  certain  Galileans  with 
their  sacrifices.  It  would  be  easy  to  get  him  to 
act  decisively  against  Christ,  if  suspicion  could  be 
aroused  against  Him.  They  themselves  assumed 
a  patriotic  pose,  so  they  joined  the  Herodians,  at 
other  times  their  opponents,  in  order,  by  words  of 
flattering  deference,  to  betray  Christ  into  an  un- 
guarded word  against  the  government.  "Master, 
we  know  that  Thou  art  true,  and  teachest  the  way 


102  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

of  God  in  truth ;  neither  carest  Thou  for  any  man, 
for  Thou  regardest  not  the  person  of  men.  Tell 
us,  therefore,  Is  it  lawful  to  give  tribute  to  Caesar, 
or  not?"  Of  course,  this  was  entirely  overdone. 
Part  of  it  was  not  true.  Christ  does  care  for 
every  man,  and  that  is  why  He  was  impartial. 

Our  Lord  not  only  knew  their  craft,  but  He 
showed  them  that  He  knew.  He  said,  ^^Why 
tempt  ye  Me,  ye  hypocrites?  Show  Me  the  trib- 
ute money."  So  they  brought  Him  a  penny.  The 
penny  was  a  Roman  coin.  That  it  passed  current 
as  lawful  money  in  the  country  was  an  evidence 
of  the  authority  they  were  living  under,  and  to 
which  they  really  owed  a  great  deal.  Our  Lord  then 
asks  them,  "Whose  is  this  image  and  superscrip- 
tion" on  the  coin?     They  answered,   "Caesar's." 

Then  our  Lord  says,  "Render  therefore  unto 
Caesar  the  things  which  are  Caesar's,  and  unto 
God  the  things  that  are  God's."  They  had  a  coin- 
age of  their  own  for  the  purposes  of  the  sanc- 
tuary. 

This  partly  explains  the  presence  of  money- 
changers in  the  Temple;  for  they  would  have  re- 
garded the  use  of  Roman  money  there  as  wrong. 
Our  Lord  shows  that  there  would  be  no  necessary 
conflict  of  duties  until  the  Romans  should  try  to 
claim  what  belonged  to  God  and  His  sanctuary. 
If  their  worship  were  left  free,  the  Jews  might. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  103 

and  ought  to,  respect  the  constituted  authority. 
That  the  divine  Providence  might  have  made 
strangers  lords  over  them,  was  abundantly  showed 
in  their  history;  and  Eoman  lordship  was  dis- 
tinctly better  for  them  than  some  they  had  en- 
dured. Under  the  Empire,  war  never  approached 
Judea  until  they  themselves  rebelled. 

The  early  Christians  remembered  faithfully 
these  words  of  Christ.  They  became  the  best  cit- 
izens of  the  Empire.  They  paid  their  tribute, 
their  taxes,  obeyed  the  laws — all  but  one;  and  in 
the  nature  of  things  they  could  not  have  obeyed 
that.  It  was  a  law  against  secret  societies,  or 
meetings.  The  law  was,  undoubtedly,  first  passed 
against  secret  societies  which  practised  abominable 
rites;  but  it  seemed  to  apply  to  the  Christians, 
who  had  no  other  way  to  meet  except  in  private. 
And,  in  addition,  the  Christians  would  not  ren- 
der divine  honors  to  Caesar.  That  they  could  not 
have  done  as  Jews;  they  certainly  could  not  as 
Christians.  !N'evertheless,  they  were  the  best  and 
most  law-abiding  of  citizens,  and  this  was  recog- 
nized with  perplexity. 

When  the  Christianizing  of  the  barbaric  world 
began,  it  was  the  Church  that  often  made  the 
State  possible.  England  was  one  Church  before 
it  was  one  State,  and  the  kings  could  hardly  have 
governed    without    the    Church.      So    England's 


104  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

Church  not  only  founded  the  State,  but  it  pre- 
served the  national  freedom.  For  the  Great  Char- 
ter was  wrested  from  a  would-be  despot  by  the 
greatest  prelate  of  his  day. 

In  a  great  many  European  countries  there  is 
an  Established  Church,  the  meaning  of  establish- 
ment varying  in  many  degrees.  Some  countries 
regularly  pay  the  clergy.  In  England  there  is  no 
State  aid  to  the  Church,  and  the  Church  does 
much  more  for  the  State  than  she  in  any  sense 
receives ;  for  the  State  does  interfere  unreasonably 
with  her  law. 

Here  we  have  no  State  Church,  and  cannot 
have;  but  we  are  free  to  follow  our  own  con- 
sciences in  religion.  What  can  we  say  to  our  par- 
ticular membership  in  behalf  of  the  civil  govern- 
ment ?  We  can  say  there  never  was  a  government 
under  which  taxes,  customs,  and  public  obligations 
ought  to  have  seemed  more  reasonable  than  here. 
We  ought  to  do  our  civic  duties  with  the  utmost 
cheerfulness.  And  we  can  say  that  our  duty  to 
the  State  is  adopted  as  Christian  dutj^,  even 
though  the  specific  thing  the  State  may  ask  of  us, 
through  her  statutes,  may  never  have  been  thought 
of  before. 

When  St.  Peter  wrote,  ^'Foar  God,  honor  the 
king,"  he  was  not  stating  principles  which  were 
opposed.     You    honor    "the    king''    (which    word 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  105 

generally  states  the  supreme  authority,  no  matter 
what  the  form  of  government  under  which  you 
live),  because  "the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of 
God.''  If  you  should  take  money  to  endow  a 
church  which  you  had  made  by  defrauding  the 
customs,  you  do  not  honor  God  at  all.  If  you 
successfully  evade  taxation  till  you  have  enough 
money  to  endow  a  projected  orphanage,  you  do 
not  do  good — you  steal.  There  is  a  deplorable 
lack  of  conscience  among  our  people  about  this 
relation  to  the  State.  People  who  are  caught 
smuggling  are  not  ashamed  of  themselves  for 
smuggling,  but  ashamed  of  being  caught.  Our 
Lord  makes  the  debt  due  Caesar  religiously  due. 

Everything  we  get  from  the  State  ought  to 
be  accounted  for.  The  State  bestows  the  suffrage. 
Every  right  has  a  reciprocal  duty.  We  owe  that 
vote  to  the  State.  The  State  gives  protection  in 
various  ways  to  the  public  health.  We  owe  co- 
operation, even  to  our  own  loss  and  inconvenience, 
or  else  government  would  be  impossible.  We  owe 
this  to  our  neighbors  as  fellow-Christians.  Good 
health  is  not  only  a  blessing;  it  is  a  duty,  as  far 
as  we  can  promote  it. 

The  State  gives  us  important  safeguards  in 
her  judicial  system.  We  owe  our  duty  as  jurors 
when  drawn.  It  makes  us  roads;  we  must  obey 
the  laws  of  the  road.     But,  alas,  just  to  mention 


106  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

sanitary  regulations,  road  laws,  speed  laws,  game 
laws,  customs  duties,  smoke  ordinances,  is  to  raise 
in  everyone's  mind  an  immediate  illustration  of 
complete  public  indifference.  This  is  not  Chris- 
tian. We  should  do  these  things  for  Christ's 
sake.  "Eender  unto  Caesar  the  things  which  are 
Caesar's." 

Then  our  religious  duties  are  much  greater 
than  we  are  accustomed  to  consider.  Our  dues  to 
God  can  be  related  to  claims  upon  our  time,  our 
belongings,  and  our  personal  services.  We  can- 
not do  our  duty  toward  God  unless  we  do  our 
duty  toward  our  neighbor.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  most  Christians  fall  far  short  of  pay- 
ing their  religious  dues  in  every  one  of  these 
directions:  time,  money,  and  personal  services. 

Sundays  are  commonly  rendered  to  the  world, 
or  pleasure.  But  the  world  never  gave  us  Sun- 
day; it  was  a  clean  gift  from  God.  The  world 
would  never  concede  us  a  rest  day.  Without  a 
visible  Church  we  would  not  have  had  it.  With- 
out using  it  rightly,  we  are  in  danger  of  losing  it. 
We  do  not  really  need  a  day  to  play,  and  if  Sun- 
day means  just  that  everybody  is  idle,  instead  of 
religiously  occupied,  we  cannot  say  there  are  not 
great  dangers  in  having  everybody  idle  at  once. 

Let  any  emphasis  upon  the  giving  of  money  be 
passed  here,  except  for  the  appeal  to  find  out  how 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  107 

much  you  really  owe.  It  will  take  some  time. 
Your  debts  will  grow  on  examination.  But  the 
matter  of  personal  service  to  God  needs  far  more 
attention  than  we  are  apt  to  pay  to  it.  Nothing 
can  take  its  place  where  it  is  really  due.  Such 
duties  are  connected  intimately  with  personality, 
which  is  a  non-transferable  thing.  Our  talents, 
our  education,  our  tastes  make  us  able  to  do  things 
with  a  touch  much  needed,  but  which  no  one  else 
has  exactly.  Hence  we  can  not  buy  off  our  per- 
sonal duties  for  a  money  compensation,  and  be  re- 
lieved of  higher  responsibilities  thereby. 

The  real  friends  of  Christ,  who  ask  that  they 
may  know,  and  not  defeat  His  wisdom,  will  be 
alert  about  these  things;  for  they  find  both  privi- 
lege and  duty  best  expressed  in  those  words  of  our 
Eucharistic  prayer:  "Here  we  offer  and  present 
unto  Thee  ourselves,  our  souls  and  bodies,  as  a 
reasonable,  holy,  and  living  sacrifice." 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

XVI. THE    ERROR    OF    THE    SADDUCEES. 

In  the  Resurrection,  whose  wife  of  them  is  she?  for 
seven  had  her  to  wife. — St.  Luke  20 :  33. 

HE  Sadducees  were,  in  our  Lord's 
time,  in  control  of  the  great  offices 
and  positions  of  the  Jewish  Church. 
The  importance  of  the  rival  sect,  the 
Pharisees,  came  from  their  influence  on  the  peo- 
ple. The  Sadducees  had  influence  with  the  Ko- 
man  authorities.  They  afford  a  curious  illustra- 
tion of  how  strangely  we  are  constituted.  How 
could  men  absolutely  without  spirituality,  with- 
out even  faith  in  spiritual  realities,  even  desire  to 
hold  offices  which  lost  their  meaning  if  unspirit- 
ually  exercised?  But  history  duplicates  this  sit- 
uation in  the  age  of  the  Medicean  Popes,  when 
thorough-going  skepticism  was  not  at  all  uncom- 
mon among  the  highest  ecclesiastics. 

The  Sadducees  refused  to  recognize  any  of  the 
old  Scriptures  except  the  Torah,  or  Law  of  Moses ; 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  109 

and  you  may  remember  that  there  is  no  explicit 
teaching  about  immortality  in  the  Law.  There 
are  reasons  why  we  do  not  expect  to  find  it  there. 
What  the  Sadducees  did  not  observe  was  that  the 
Law  really  took  immortality  for  granted.  Every- 
body in  the  Egypt  from  which  the  Israelites  had 
escaped,  believed  in  it,  and  the  Law  contains  no 
contradiction  of  it;  while  it  did  contradict  and 
oppose  much  that  the  Israelites  had  been  used  to 
during  their  bondage. 

The  main  body  of  the  Jews  sided  doctrinally 
with  the  Pharisees,  though  not  all  proceeded  to 
their  extremes,  and  were  believers  in  the  Resurrec- 
tion. Martha's  confession  after  the  death  of 
Lazarus,  ^^I  know  that  he  shall  rise  again  in  the 
Resurrection  at  the  last  day,"  was  made  as  a  devout 
Jewess. 

The  Sadducees  rejected  all  this.  They  be- 
lieved in  neither  angel  nor  spirit;  they  admitted 
no  resurrection.  N^ever  were  men  more  out  of 
place. 

The  question  in  the  text  was  a  manufactured 
one.  I^othing  of  the  kind  ever  happened.  But 
they  suppose  a  case  where  seven  brothers  in  suc- 
cession married  the  same  woman,  and  all  died 
childless,  leaving  the  woman  a  seven-times  widow. 
If  there  had  been  children  by  any  of  them,  there 
would  have  been  no  subsequent  marriage;  and  it 


no  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

would  have  been  another  case.  The  question  was 
put  to  our  Lord  for  the  sake  of  confusing  Him, 
and  also  to  show  everybody  that  the  Resurrection, 
if  it  could  be  believed  in,  would  result  in  some 
cases  in  inextricable  entanglements. 

Our  Lord's  answer  was  very  full  and  clear, 
and  gives  us  larger  detail  about  the  Doctrine  of 
the  Resurrection  than  we  get  anywhere  else.  He 
said,  "The  children  of  this  world  marry  and  are 
given  in  marriage.  But  they  that  shall  be  ac- 
counted worthy  to  obtain  that  world,  and  the 
Resurrection  from  the  dead,  neither  marry  nor  are 
given  in  marriage ;  neither  can  they  die  any  more ; 
for  they  are  equal  unto  the  angels;  and  are  the 
children  of  God,  being  children  of  the  Resurrec- 
tion." It  really  was  worth  while  that  a  foolish 
question  should  be  asked,  for  the  sake  of  produc- 
ing these  words  of  our  Lord,  so  full,  and  clear. 

Then  our  Lord  proceeds  to  refer  the  Sadducees 
back  to  those  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  which 
they  recognized,  and  to  show  that  immortality 
was  taken  for  granted.  He  says,  "Now  that  the 
dead  are  raised,  even  Moses  showed  at  the  Bush, 
when  he  called  the  Lord  the  God  of  Abraham,  the 
God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob.  For  He  is 
not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living :  for  all 
live  unto  Him."  And  so  He  concludes,  "Ye  do 
therefore  greatly  err."     They  did  not  know,  as  He 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  111 

said,  either  ''the  Scriptures,  or  the  Power  of  God." 
There  is  no  such  revelation  of  Heaven,  and 
the  life  to  come,  as  to  answer  all  possible  questions 
about  the  conditions  there.  We  never  needed 
such  a  revelation.  If  we  have  faith  that  God  is 
perfectly  good,  just,  kind,  wise,  powerful,  our 
faith  makes  us  happy  in  the  prospect  of  Heaven. 
And  then  common  sense  comes  in  to  tell  us  that 
any  adequate  description  of  Heaven  could  not  be 
made  to  our  present  faculties.  We  would  need 
to  know  the  language  of  Heaven.  What  we  can 
do  is  simply  to  have  confidence  that  it  will  more 
than  answer  all  possible  expectations,  be  "exceed- 
ing abundantly  more  than  we  can  ask  or  think." 
But  nothing  that  our  Lord  said  here  justifies 
us  in  thinking  that  people  who  have  been  truly 
married  have  nothing  to  expect  from  reunion  in 
the  life  to  come.  For,  that  the  spiritual  side  of 
human  relationships  continues  into  the  next  world, 
can  safely  be  asserted.  If  God  give  to  a  wedded 
pair  here  the  mercy  of  coming  to  their  golden 
wedding  day,  they  have  by  that  time  left  behind 
them  a  good  deal  that  is  earthly  in  their  relation- 
ship. They  have  become  brother  and  sister,  two 
spiritually  interpenetrating  selves.  They  are  more 
one  than  "one  flesh"  signifies.  They  have,  how- 
ever, such  a  relationship  that  it  could  be  shared 
by  more  than  two,  for  it  has  ceased  to  be  after  the 


112  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

flesh ;  but  it  has  become  greatly  precious.  Indeed, 
it  has  become  so  precious  that  we  cannot  think  it 
is  meant  to  be  terminated. 

A  joung  woman  is  happily  wedded  to  a  fitting 
mate.  She  becomes  the  mother  of  his  children. 
They  seem  perfectly  at  one,  and  perfectly  in  love. 
He  dies,  and  leaves  her  desolate.  She  thinks  she 
will  die  of  grief,  but  she  doesn't.  Their  mutual 
dependence  has  been  less  than  she  supposed.  But, 
let  the  same  two  go  on  together  for  fifty  years,  and 
then  the  "silver  cord"  which  binds  up  life  may  be 
the  same  for  both  of  them.  They  are  no  longer 
so  dependent  upon  each  other  in  the  old  sense, 
but  more  in  a  higher  spiritual  union.  Nor  is 
this  less  sweet.  "All  the  world  loves  a  lover,"  and 
the  sweetness  of  "love's  young  dream"  is  prover- 
bial. But  do  they  quite  express  so  high  a  reality 
as  that  charming  old  song,  "John  Anderson  my 
jo?"  An  old  wedding  wish,  "May  you  live  to- 
gether fifty  years  and  die  on  the  same  day"  has 
been  more  than  a  few  times  fulfilled. 

God  will  surely  bring  together  in  a  better 
world  our  friends  of  earth,  without  any  of  the 
troubles  of  earth,  "l^either  shall  they  die  any 
more"  says  more  than  it  seems  to,  for  so  many  of 
the  troubles  of  earth  are  just  slow  dying.  Ex- 
terior relationships  do  not  amount  to  much  unless 
they  go  down  deep,  and  call  forth  something  in 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  113 

the  soul.  And  the  deeper  the  source  of  things,  the 
more  permanent  they  seem  to  be,  the  more  they 
seem  to  prophesy  the  realities  of  the  ^life  of  the 
world  to  come." 

He  who  gave  us  that  picture  of  personal 
agency  in  future  comfort,  expressed  by  Lazarus 
in  Abraham^s  bosom;  He  who  chose  serving  dis- 
ciples, that  He  might  advance  them  to  friendship ; 
He  who,  for  the  sake  of  a  mother  here  or  brethren 
there,  raised  from  the  dead  those  whom  they  had 
hopelessly  mourned ;  He  who  was  the  Chief  of 
Friends,  more  than  Brother,  who  loved  "His  own 
unto  the  end,"  is  the  Lord  of  the  world  to  come. 
To  Him,  therefore,  because  He  has  been  believed 
by  us  to  be  Author  of  all  the  Sweetness  of  this 
life,  we  dedicate  ourselves  in  faith,  looking,  as 
into  a  vast  but  glowing  distance,  for  the  promise 
of  the  coming  day,  hoping  not  less  for  the  reunions 
of  Heaven  than  for  its  perfection. 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 


Lord,  how  is  it  that  Thou  wilt  manifest  Thyself 
unto  us,  and  not  unto  the  world? — St.   John  14:22. 


|HIS  is  the  solitary  appearance  of  Jude 
in  the  Gospels,  except  in  the  mere 
lists  of  the  Apostles.  There  were  two 
Judases,  two  Simons,  two  Jameses. 
There  were  also  three  sets  of  brothers,  and  perhaps 
other  relationships  represented.  Jude  is  believed 
to  have  been  our  Lord's  cousin.  There  is  nothing 
in  this  question  to  show  cousinly  intimacy.  It  is 
the  question  of  a  humble  disciple.  It  is  so  simple 
that  one  almost  feels  at  first  that  it  was  unnecessary 
to  ask  it;  but  it  brought  out  a  very  full  and  sym- 
pathetic answer. 

If  the  Epistle  we  have,  that  is  called  by  St. 
Jude,  is  by  the  apostle,  as  we  have  most  reasons 
for  supposing,  it  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  echo  of 
things  said  by  St.  Peter,  except  for  one  stirring 
clause:  "Earnestly  contend  for  the  faith  once  de- 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  115 

livered  to  the  saints."  There  are  places  where  an 
echo  is  all  that  is  needed,  and  a  simple  soul  needs 
a  simple  teacher.  So  perhaps  a  great  many  people 
have  needed  our  Lord's  answer  just  as  it  stands. 

And  the  more  Jude's  question  is  looked  at,  the 
more  important  it  appears.  We  stand  in  great 
need  of  the  manifestation  of  Christ.  We  read 
our  Bibles,  we  go  to  church,  we  say  our  prayers; 
but  do  we  feel,  after  all  the  time  we  have  been  in 
the  Church,  that  we  have  really  advanced  in  spir- 
itual knowledge,  that  is,  in  personal  knowledge  of 
Christ?  Isn't  St.  Paul  pretty  bold  according  to 
your  experience  when  he  says,  "I  know  whom  I 
have  believed  ?" 

]N'ow,  as  diffident  Christians,  we  have  a  peculiar 
interest  in  our  Lord's  answer.  He  says,  "If  a 
man  love  Me  he  will  keep  My  words,  and  My 
Father  will  love  him,  and  We  will  come  unto  him, 
and  make  Our  abode  with  him.  And  the  word 
that  ye  hear  is  not  Mine,  but  the  Father's  which 
sent  Me."     In  other  words,  this  is  God's  truth. 

So,  then,  the  chief  key  to  a  personal  revelation 
is  love.  You  will  take  no  trouble  to  understand 
any  person  unless  you  can  respect  him,  nor  hold 
your  interest  if  you  do  not  like  him.  But  if  you 
heartily  do  like,  respect  and  admire  him,  if  you 
reverence  his  character,  think  of  him  as  an  in- 
spiration and  an  example,  you  will  not  rest  satis- 


116  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

fied  with  any  lower  degree  of  intimacy  than  the 
most  he  is  willing  to  grant. 

'Now  Christ  is  disposed  to  grant  to  us  a  re- 
markable intimacy,  so  far  as  it  is  consistent  with 
the  reverential  awe  and  admiration  and  obedience 
that  we  owe  Him.  We  are  not  His  equals,  and 
cannot  be.  Yet  He  "will  come  in  unto  us  and 
sup  with  us,  and  we  with  Him."  That  intimacy, 
however,  in  this  life  has  to  be  with  an  Invisible 
Friend.  It  has  to  be  apprehended  now  by  a  dif- 
ferent organ  than  sight,  or  by  faith,  and  it  is  the 
office  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  to  help  us  do  this.  Xo 
parts  of  Holy  Scripture  are  more  helpful  to  us 
than  the  words  of  Christ  Himself. 

For  have  we  not,  after  all,  a  very  clear  idea 
of  what  Christ  was  like?  The  portrait  has  been 
drawn  in  the  mind.  It  was  in  his  mind  before 
any  artist  drew  it,  for  we  have  no  authentic  por- 
trait of  the  Saviour.  We  have,  however,  wonder- 
ful pen  pictures  of  Him  which,  while  they  do  not 
give  one  single  feature,  nevertheless  give  the  whole. 
We  cannot  escape  from  the  conviction  that  He  is 
working  through  the  ages,  and  that  we  have  seen 
His  work.  We  ask  more  than  a  realization  of 
Christ  as  a  historical  Person.  We  do  not  enter 
into  communion  with  historical  personages.  What 
we  seek  is  the  niauifostatiou  of  the  Living  Christ, 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  117 

and  it  is  this  which  Christ  really  intended  to 
promise. 

For  the  way  to  realize  Christ  is  to  live  the 
Christ  life.  Approach  life  in  the  way  Christ  did, 
approach  another  life  in  the  way  He  did.  Fix 
your  eye  on  the  personal  need,  the  personal  value 
of  another  man.  Approach  him  with  the  unselfish 
idea  of  benefitting  Him.  Feed  the  hungry,  give 
drink  to  the  thirsty,  clothe  the  naked,  seek  the 
prisoner  and  afflicted,  and  do  this,  not  in  a  casual 
way  of  doing  it,  but  with  an  honest  desire  to  com- 
mune with  Christ  in  action,  to  keep  His  command- 
ments, and  you  are  surely  due  to  receive  a 
revelation. 

It  is  not  possible  to  say  that,  with  the  best 
desire  to  do  so,  you  may  always  recognize  the 
revelation  while  it  is  present  or  coming.  One  of 
Christ's  parables  of  the  Judgment  seems  to  post- 
pone the  realization  of  present  facts  until  the 
very  end  has  come.  ^^Lord,  when  saw  we  Thee"  'i 
and  this  though  He  Himself  states  His  presence 
through  another.  Nevertheless,  it  states  those 
facts  as  facts.  And  the  waiting  for  realization 
may  not  be  so  very  long. 

You  remember  that  the  walk  to  Emmaus  was 
what  we  would  call  a  long  walk,  but  it  did  not  take 
much  time.  It  began  with  sorrowing  thoughts 
and  conversation  between  two  friends,   all  about 


118  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

Jesus.  While  the  two  were  walking  and  talking, 
"Jesus  Himself  drew  near."  "But  their  eyes 
were  holden  that  they  should  not  know  Him." 
It  was  really  Jesus,  though.  Their  ears  were  fully 
open,  too,  and  as  they  were  going  along  with  the 
stranger  who  knew  so  much  about  the  Scriptures, 
they  were  filled  to  saturation  with  nothing  but 
the  spirit  of  the  Messianic  promises.  These  were 
being  explained  to  them  by  the  Incarnate  Word 
Himself.  They  did  not  know  it  was  He,  but  their 
hearts  were  burning.  Then,  with  hearts  and 
minds  saturated  with  this  foredrawn  picture  of 
their  Lord,  they  sat  down  with  the  Man  who  had 
thus  so  wonderfully  taught  them.  They  could  not 
let  Him  go.  And  as  He  broke  the  Bread,  recog- 
nition flashed,  and — He  vanished.  "They  knew 
Him"  and  "He  vanished!"  How  they  must  have 
wondered  why  He  did  not  stay!  Perhaps  it  was 
for  something  of  the  reason  that  St.  Paul  alludes 
to  when  he  says,  "though  we  have  known  Christ 
after  the  flesh,  henceforth  know  we  Him  (thus) 
no  more." 

Was  it  not  true,  therefore,  that  they  had  al- 
ready entered  upon  the  beginnings  of  the  same 
problem  that  we  have  ?  He  has  vanished  from  us. 
Our  eyes,  too,  are  holden.  But  let  us  keep  to  His 
words.  Let  them  flood  our  minds,  let  us  take  time 
to  consider  them,  let  us  seek  the  Lord  in  the  Break- 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  119 

ing  of  Bread.  That  flash  of  recognition  is,  we  be- 
lieve, certain  to  come  to  us,  and  will  not  fail  us 
when  we  need  it  most.  It  seems  plain,  though, 
that  we  are  not  intended  to  have  it  always,  or 
much,  but  to  find  our  communion  in  obedience. 
"We  walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight."  But  if  it  never 
comes  before  and  we  have  been  really  faithful,  by 
the  testimony  of  many,  it  comes  in  the  Valley  of 
the  Shadow. 

Whether  Stephen,  the  first  martyr,  really  had 
ever  seen  Jesus  it  would  be  impossible  for  us  to 
say.  He  was  a  Greek-speaking  Jew.  Perhaps  he 
was  one  of  those  who  came  to  Philip  just  before 
the  last  Passover,  and  asked  to  see  Jesus.  But 
it  is  not  there  said  whether  they  saw  Him  or  not. 
But  there  did  come  a  time  when  Stephen  was  being 
stoned  to  death  for  his  faithfulness  to  the  testimony 
of  Jesus,  Saul  of  Tarsus  looking  on.  And  as 
death  rushed  upon  him  he  said,  "I  see  Jesus." 

Lord,  though  our  eyes  be  holden  here,  hold 
not  back  our  hands  and  hearts  from  serving  Thee ; 
fill  Thou  our  hearts  with  love  for  Thee.  May  all 
our  desires  and  powers  be  Thine.  And  when  we 
need  Thee  most,  reveal  Thyself  and  save  us.  For 
we  are  Thine. 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

XVIII. — OUR  ow:n  duty  first. 

Lord,  and  what  shall  this  man  do? — St.  John  21:21. 

E  are  very  much  indebted  to  Simon 
Peter  for  the  questions  he  asked. 
They  v^ere  not  always  wise,  but, 
though  they  sometimes  were  rebuked, 
they  always  elicited  important  truth.  We  all  ask 
such  questions,  even  if  we  do  not  ask  them  of  any 
one  in  particular,  or  ask  aloud.  We  have  them  in 
our  hearts. 

Thanks,  no  doubt  in  part,  to  our  Lord's  wise 
answers  to  his  impulsive  questions,  we  observe  that 
the  Peter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  a  different 
character,  though  the  same  person  as  the  Simon 
Peter  of  the  Gospels.  The  other  disciples  knew 
him  perfectly  well,  defects  and  all.  Is  it  not 
strange  that,  after  hearing  him  rebuked  so  many 
times,  and  knowing  all  about  his  three-fold  denial, 
they  yet  should  afterward  have  accepted  him  as 
a  conspicuously  leading  man  among  them  ?  May 
it  not  have  been  a  sort  of  confession  on  their  part, 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  121 

that  they  felt  they  were  just  like  him  on  the  inside  ? 
They  didn't  ask  all  his  hasty  questions,  but  they 
might  have  done  it  if  he  hadn't.  Our  thoughts 
are  really  registered  as  actions  in  the  sphere  of 
thought.     '^As  a  man  thinketh,  so  is  he." 

The  conversation  of  which  this  question  was  a 
part  was,  in  a  way,  a  private  conversation.  The 
occasion  was  that  second  miraculous  draught  of 
fishes  which  introduces  Peter's  restoration,  and  the 
question  comes  in,  as  soon  as  that  restoration  was 
complete.  They  were  possibly  barely  more  than 
aside  from  the  others,  and  John  seems  to  have 
overheard  a  good  deal,  or  all  of  what  was  said. 
But  he  did  not  intrude  into  the  conversation.  And 
he  and  Peter  were  always  so  much  together  that 
his  presence  would  not  have  seemed  intrusive. 
John  probably  rejoiced  inwardly  over  Peter's 
restoration,  and  the  words  'Teed  My  lambs;  feed 
My  sheep." 

So  solemn  and  searching  were  our  Lord's  ques- 
tions, so  piercing  the  repetition  of  ''Lovest  thou 
Me?"  that  one  would  think  it  would  have  kept 
Peter  quiet  for  a  while.  But  the  force  of  a  great 
thought  sometimes  brings  a  momentary  sort  of 
rebound.  So  Peter  has  hardly  received  his  abso- 
lution and  his  new  commission  before  he  thinks 
of  John.  He  turns  and  sees  him  following,  and 
asks  the  question,  "What  shall  this  man  do  ?" 


122  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

The  question  was  not  quite  so  unnatural  as  it 
would  have  been  if  Peter  were  not  so  used  to  being 
and  acting  in  company  with  John,  but  still  it  was 
improper.  We  can  do  much  for  our  friends,  but 
we  must  not  do  too  much;  we  can  not  enter  upon 
their  responsibilities,  or  have  their  deep  experi- 
ences. You  have  to  let  a  man  be  as  much  of  a  man 
as  you  can,  and  decide  for  himself  what  it  is 
his  to  do. 

So  our  Lord's  answer  plainly  indicates  to 
Peter  the  intrusive  character  of  his  question.  "If 
I  will  that  he  tarry  till  I  come,  what  is  that  to 
thee  ?  Follow  thou  Me."  Peter  was  not  the  sort 
of  man  to  conceal  what  was  said  to  him,  the  re- 
proofs any  more  than  the  commendation.  So  this 
saying  was  a  good  deal  talked  about,  and  gave  rise 
to  the  impression  among  some  of  the  disciples  that 
St.  John  would  not  die ;  in  other  words,  would  be 
still  alive  when  the  Saviour  returned  to  judgment. 

But,  though  John  was  preserved  to  a  very  ad- 
vanced age,  and  wrote  his  Gospel  when  he  was 
very  old,  he  apparently  had  no  expectation  himself 
of  not  sharing  the  common  lot.  He  had  his  own 
calling,  his  own  experiences,  his  own  work.  This 
is  the  case  with  everyone  of  us.  We  have  respon- 
sibilities about  our  brethren,  but  no  considerations 
about  their  duty  should  relieve  us  from  seriously 
and  attentively  considering  our  own.     Christ  says 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  123 

in  effect  to  each  of  us  when  we  are  mourning  over 
unsatisfactory  conditions  in  the  world,  or  the 
Church,  the  lack  of  workers,  the  infrequency  of 
full  consecration,  ^'Follow  thou  Me !" 

If  you  were  the  only  person  in  the  community 
who  seemed  to  be  realizing  vocation,  the  call  to 
help,  you  might  still  more  limit  the  amount  of 
good  you  could  do  by  wasting  your  active  time  in 
lamenting  the  fevTness  of  the  workers.  It  is  often 
a  fatal  temptation.  You  might  think  the  little 
you  could  do  not  worth  doing  if  there  were  no 
other  at  work.    But  this  is  not  the  case. 

So  we  come  to  this  clear  point :  no  matter  how 
young  or  old  you  are,  how  rich  or  poor,  however 
large  or  small  your  endowments,  duty  is  a  personal 
matter  between  you  and  Christ.  This  does  not 
mean  that  we  have  not  duties  in  which  we  may 
have  to  take  the  commands  of  others,  but  even 
then  our  responsibility  goes  back  to  Christ.  There 
is  nothing  to  discourage  our  direct  prayers  or  ap- 
peals. As  far  as  your  personal  duty,  your  personal 
need  is  concerned,  though  the  sympathetic  knowl- 
edge of  other  disciples  may  be  a  help,  it  is  just  as 
much  between  you  and  Christ  alone  as  it  was 
between  Him  and  St.  Peter. 

What  our  duty,  full  duty,  to  Christ  is,  what 
it  may  become,  we  are  never  in  a  position  to  know 
clearly  until  we  have  advanced  some  way  toward 


124  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

the  love  of  Christ.  You  can't  trust  people  to  act 
for  you,  if  they  do  not  understand  your  mind  and 
intention.  Their  usefulness  to  you  depends  upon 
their  fitness  to  be  trusted.  To  be  sure,  God  makes 
some  use  even  of  people  who  do  not  serve  Him 
willingly;  but  this  is  not  the  sort  of  work  that 
Christians  ought  to  do  for  Christ.  No  commission 
came  to  Peter  until  the  threefold  question  had 
pierced  his  heart  so  deeply,  and  brought  forth  his 
confession  of  love.  As  God  knew  his  heart,  and 
without  deception,  Peter  could  say  that  he  loved 
Christ. 

Doubtless,  he  had  thought  before  this  many 
times  that  he  loved  the  Master.  He  had  even  made 
some  sacrifices  for  Him,  but  he  had  not  then  loved 
Him  enough  to  overcome  his  fears  of  what  might 
happen  to  him  if  he  had  confessed  Christ  in  the 
High  Priest's  palace.  When  we  really  love  Christ, 
following  Him  will  be  seen  not  to  be  wholly  for  our 
own  sakes.  It  is  for  the  sake  of  Christ's  lambs 
and  sheep.  We  are  not  all  apostles,  but  every 
Christian  needs  a  Shepherd  heart. 

In  the  beginnings  of  the  Gospel  the  Good 
Shepherd  is  represented  as  going  out  alone  to 
bring  in  the  lost  sheep.  But  there  are  many  lost. 
And  we  are  so  made  and  constituted  that,  with 
everyone  of  us,  there  is  probably  some  person  in 
the  world  over  whom  we  are  likely  to  have  more 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  125 

influence  than  has  anyone  else.  A  child  can  often 
do  more  with  and  for  a  playmate  than  the  mother 
can.  So  to  everyone  in  his  degree,  and  as  far  as 
love  makes  him  able  to  serve,  Christ  gives  not  only 
food  and  grace,  but  a  command  to  share  it;  and 
when  He  commands  us  to  follow.  He  gives  us  to 
some  degree  to  lead  men  to  Him. 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

XIX. THE    GOSPEL    TO    ABRAHAM. 

Thou  art  not  yet  fifty  years  old,  and  hast  Thou  seen 
Abraham?— St.  John  8:57. 

HIS  question  voiced  the  great  astonish- 
ment of  the  Jews  at  the  saying  of  our 
Lord,  ''Your  father  Abraham  rejoiced 
to  see  My  day,  and  he  saw  it  and  was 
glad."  Our  Lord  was  before  them,  plainly  a  young 
man,  as  we  know,  little  more  than  thirty,  but 
probably  estimated  as  older  from  the  gravity  and 
intensity  of  His  life.  Still,  how  could  a  man  fifty 
years  old  have  seen  Abraham?  Our  Lord's  an- 
swer was,  ''Before  Abraham  was  (born),  I  Am." 

Then  astonishment  gave  place  to  wrath,  and 
they  took  up  stones  to  cast  at  Him,  while  He 
eluded  them. 

You  will  notice  two  things  in  this  answer :  that 
He  there  asserted  His  own  preexistence,  and  also 
used,  as  appears,  what  the  Jews  considered  the 
Incommunicable  Name.  This  apparently  was 
what  roused  their  wrath  most. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  127 

In  order  to  look  at  this  supposed  knowledge  of 
Christ  by  Abraham,  let  us  consider  the  patriarch 
himself. 

He  was  brought  up  in  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  a 
great  city  of  which,  we  suppose,  the  remains  have 
been  found ;  but  he  may  have  gone  there  first  from 
southern  Arabia.  A  worshipper  of  One  God,  he 
was  impelled  by  a  Divine  message  to  leave  Ur, 
which  was  given  over  to  a  complicated  idol  and 
nature  worship,  and  went  first  north  to  Haran 
taking  some  of  his  kindred  with  him,  not  all  of 
them,  however,  sharing  his  pure  monotheism ;  and 
then,  afterward,  by  a  second  call  of  God,  and 
taking  only  his  nephew  Lot,  he  goes  to  the  land  of 
Canaan.  There  he  was  a  stranger,  and  lived  as  a 
wanderer.  He  mixed  little  with  the  people,  though 
maintaining  peace  with  them.  The  chapters  of 
Genesis  which  describe  his  life  are  also  a  history 
of  his  religious  development. 

His  thoughts  of  God  are  shown  in  the  ITames 
he  called  Him.  The  religion  of  the  Hittites  and 
Canaanites  around  him  was  also  idolatrous,  an 
elaborate,  cruel,  and  impure  nature  worship.  In 
the  face  of  that,  and  in  spite  of  the  idolatry  of 
Ur,  he  had  arrived  at  the  belief  that  God  was  One, 
that  He  was  Almighty — for  that  is  the  meaning 
of  El  Shaddai;  that  He  was  Supreme — for  that 
was  the  signification  of  El  Elyon — or,  in  other 


128  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

words,  the  Most  High;  that  He  was  Everlasting; 
that  He  was  the  Kighteous  Judge  of  all  the  earth ; 
that  He  was  merciful — witness  the  faith  shown  in 
the  prayer  of  Sodom;  that  He  was  the  Faithful 
Promiser  and  Covenant  Keeper;  that  He  held 
communion  with  man  through  angels  and  sacri- 
fices; that,  out  of  Abraham's  own  family,  perpet- 
uated in  a  miraculous  way  through  the  birth  of 
Isaac,  God  was  going  to  bless  all  nations,  even 
though  the  patriarch  felt  moved  to  make  a  sacrifice 
of  that  very  son  who  had  been  given  him  by 
promise. 

The  ^ame  given  the  Eternal  Son  before  the 
Incarnation  was  the  Word.  That  the  Word  of  God 
came  unto  Abraham,  no  Christian  would  deny. 
That  one  of  the  angelic  visitors  who  came  to 
Abraham  spoke  words  as  if  directly  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God,  all  devout  readers  have  observed. 
And,  finally,  the  fact  that  Abraham  believed  that 
the  sacrifice  of  his  only  begotten  son  was  right, 
and  not  a  defeating  of  the  promise  that  all  the 
world  should  be  blessed  through  him,  draws  our 
attention  closer  to  that  marvellous  drama  on  Mount 
Moriah,  with  all  its  prophetic  details  of  the  later 
sacrifice  of  One  of  Isaac's  seed,  God's  only  Be- 
gotten, given  by  His  own  Heavenly  Father. 

Recall  the  journey  from  the  place  where  Abra- 
ham begins  to  ascend  the  mount  of  sacrifice.     His 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  129 

son  is  bearing  the  wood,  as  later  Christ  carried  on 
foot  the  wood  of  the  cross.  When  Isaac,  innocent 
of  the  father's  intention,  asks  where  the  lamb  is, 
Abraham  says  prophetically,  "God  will  provide 
Himself  a  lamb."  And,  at  the  supreme  moment, 
when  the  sacrifice  is  fulfilled  in  will,  and  the  voice 
of  the  angel  has  arrested  it,  then  the  lamb  was 
found,  caught  in  a  thicket  by  its  horns,  symbol 
of  the  crown  of  thorns,  manifold  type  of  the  sacri- 
fice of  Calvary. 

Then  came  from  heaven  by  the  angel's  voice 
the  fuller  proclamation  of  blessing  to  the  world  in 
Abraham's  seed,  a  promise  which  Avas  glad  tidings, 
which  was  a  gospel,  perhaps  more  deeply  under- 
stood by  Abraham  than  we  now  suppose. 

Wonderful  faith  of  Abraham !  Not  one  of  the 
nations  around  believed  in  an  Almighty  God.  All 
their  gods  had  specialties,  the  powers  of  nature 
were  divided  between  them.  Not  one  of  them  had 
a  really  Supreme  God,  for  none  of  them  could 
alter  fate.  Not  one  of  them  had  an  Everlasting 
God,  for  all  the  gods  in  every  ancient  Pantheon 
were  the  offspring  of  Time.  And  none  of  the  gods 
was  righteous.  We  recognize  the  God  of  Abraham 
as  our  God,  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ : 
that  Abraham  had  communion  with  Him,  and 
was  in  covenant  with  Him;  and,  because  no  man 
Cometh  unto  the  Father  except  through  the  Son, 


130  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

therefore  Abraham  must  have  seen  the  day  of 
Christ. 

The  Jews  had  forgotten  much  of  Abraham's 
faith.  They  were  careless  of  that  ancient  Gospel 
that  foresaw  and  exulted  in  the  blessing  of  all 
nations ;  they  did  not  realize  that  the  true  children 
of  Abraham  would  show  Abraham's  character,  and 
partake  of  his  spirit,  and  share  his  faith.  They 
could  not  recognize  a  Messenger  of  God  when 
they  saw  him.  They  could  not  bow  their  wills, 
and  so  they  charged  the  Truth  Himself  with  blas- 
phemy, and  turned  from  the  Living  God  to  serve 
the  idols  of  their  hearts  and  minds. 

What  mysterious  gift  may  yet  have  been  Abra- 
ham's after  his  death  we  do  not  know.  But  from 
our  Lord's  parable,  where  He  speaks  of  Lazarus 
being  "carried  by  the  angels  to  Abraham's  bosom," 
there  must  have  been  some  high  place,  some  special 
light  provided  for  him  in  Paradise.  Father  of 
hospitality,  father  of  courtesy,  father  of  worship, 
father  of  the  faithful;  we  are  proud,  as  were  the 
Jews,  to  call  ourselves  after  his  name.  But  if  we 
are  Abraham's  seed,  we  must  do  the  works  of 
Abraham  and  thus  prove  our  sonship.  We  must 
not  take  our  privileges  selfishly  as  the  Jews  did, 
we  must  not  be  content  to  over  value  our  race, 
our  communion  and  fellowship,  and  fall  into  the 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  131 

bondage  of  pride,  but  remember  the  intercessory 
life,  and  our  duty  to  our  neighbors. 

The  only  absolute  proof  of  sonship  is  character, 
the  family  character.  One  of  our  Bishops  once 
went  to  a  large  south-eastern  city  to  preach  a  series 
of  sermons.  After  several  sermons  had  been 
preached,  an  officer  in  the  army,  who  had  his  sta- 
tion there,  was  stopped  every  few  days  by  strangers, 
who,  with  Southern  civility,  would  ask  him  when 
he  was  going  to  preach  again.  When  he  said  that 
he  hadn't  preached  at  all,  and  was  not  expecting 
to  at  any  time,  his  questioners  were  entirely  mysti- 
fied. At  the  same  time  the  Bishop  was  being  given 
the  military  salute.  It  was  not  so  much  of  a 
mystery  after  all;  they  were  brothers.  They  had 
lived  more  than  thirty  years  apart,  but — they 
looked  like  their  father. 

Let  us  endeavor  to  show  that,  wherever  we  are, 
we  are  one  family  in  the  faith.  If  we  be  Abra- 
ham's seed,  let  us  do  the  works  of  Abraham. 

"The  God  of  Abraham  praise, 

Who  sits  enthroned  above. 
Ancient  of  Everlasting  Days 

And  God  of  Love. 
Jehovah,  great  I  AM, 

By  earth  and  heaven  confessed. 
We  bow  and  bless  Thy  Sacred  Name 

Forever  blessed." 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

XX. THE   COMING  OF  THE   KINGDOM. 

Lord,  wilt  Thou  at  this  time  restore  again  the  king- 
dom to  Israel? — Acts  1 :  6. 

UR  Lord's  Apostles  were  devout  men, 
but  they  were  patriotic  Jews.  They 
shared  the  intense  distress  of  all  the 
best  of  their  race  at  the  domination 
of  the  heathen  over  them.  They  had  hoped  that 
the  new  King  who  had  been  proclaimed  would 
only  have  to  wait  a  little  while  before  His  spir- 
itual work  would  have  prepared  His  people  once 
more  to  lift  up  their  heads  among  the  nations. 
Of  course,  unspiritual  men,  zealous  Jews,  would 
not  have  seen  any  need  to  postpone  the  coming  of 
the  visible  kingdom. 

Christ  might  probably  have  had  a  great  fol- 
lowing if  He  had  been  willing  to  ascend  a  tem- 
poral throne  first,  unprepared  for  by  righteousness. 
But  the  history  of  Judah  would  have  shown  the 
futility  of  that.     Hezekiah  was  a  good  king,  but 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  133 

his  reign  checked  but  a  little  while  the  national 
apostasy.  Josiah  was,  perhaps,  the  best  king 
Judah  had,  but  his  early  death  was  perhaps  the 
most  merciful  thing  that  could  have  happened  to 
him;  for  his  people  were  bad,  and  the  Scripture 
says  ^'there  was  no  remedy,"  except  the  lessons  to 
be  learned  through  captivity. 

So  Christ  said  nothing  to  encourage  those  who 
looked  for  glorious  visible  results  from  His  first 
coming.  When  the  Pharisees  asked  when  the 
kingdom  was  coming  He  answered,  ^'The  kingdom 
of  God  Cometh  not  with  observation,"  that  is,  as 
the  margin  gives  it,  'Svith  outward  show."  For, 
He  adds,  "The  Kingdom  of  God  is  within  you." 
There  is  where  the  kingdom  must  first  be;  after- 
ward it  will  be  time  enough  to  talk  about  a  royal 
progress  through  the  world. 

He  knew  perfectly  well  that  there  would  be 
progress  by  the  infant  Church,  but  it  would  not 
achieve  a  national  reformation.  So  far  from  that, 
the  people  go  from  bad  to  worse,  until  destruction 
would  once  more  have  to  be  visited  upon  Jerusalem. 

So,  when  the  disciples  ask  Him  just  before 
His  ascension,  if,  now  that  He  had  conquered 
death,  He  could  not  restore  the  kingdom — a  ques- 
tion possibly  not  unconnected  with  frail  ambitions 
— He  decisively  puts  the  question  aside.  His 
disciples  will  have  work  enough,   and  they  will 


134  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

have  power  enough,  after  the  few  days  that  He 
bids  them  wait;  and  on  the  coming  down  of  His 
Promise,  "they  shall  be  witnesses  unto  Him  both 
in  Jerusalem,  and  in  Judea,  and  in  Samaria,  and 
unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth." 

This  answer  must  have  both  disappointed  and 
excited  the  disciples.  For,  though  it  postponed 
the  coming  in  of  the  visible  kingdom  of  Christ,  it 
certainly  did  give  a  most  wonderful  horizon  to 
the  field  of  the  Church's  progress.  The  widest 
extent  of  Israel's  empire  in  Solomon's  peaceful 
days  bore  no  sort  of  resemblance  or  comparison 
with  empires  such  as  had  been  seen  after  him, 
and  had  treated  Judea  as  only  an  insignificant 
province.  But  Christ  announces  that  the  kingdom 
was  to  begin  to  come,  if  they  could  understand 
Him,  as  soon  as  His  testimony  could  begin  to  be 
spread,  all  over  the  world  at  once;  and  slowly, 
very  slowly,  the  faith,  the  intelligence,  and  the  con- 
science of  the  Church  began  to  respond  to  His  idea. 

"The  Kingdom  of  God  is  within  you."  This 
was,  and  is,  fundamental.  Perhaps  it  should  be 
translated,  "The  Kingdom  of  God  is  in  your 
midst."  But,  carefully  considered,  this  makes  no 
great  difference.  The  growth  of  Christ's  kingdom 
begins  quietly  through  testimony.  Its  great 
characteristic  is  holiness.  In  every  holy  man 
Christ  is  King.     Where  two  or  three  are  gathered 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  135 

in  the  Name  of  Christ,  where  holiness  has  spread 
from  one  life  to  two,  and  from  two  to  three,  there 
the  kingdom  had  grown.  Old  dynasties  might 
crawl  down  slowly  into  the  grave,  and  be  replaced 
by  newer  ones,  and  all  the  time,  through  testimony, 
through  conversion,  through  the  victory  of  faith 
in  individual  lives,  the  body  of  the  people  might 
be  almost  unconscious  of  their  earthly  allegiance, 
though  acquiescent  in  it,  because  the  thought  of 
all  was  constantly  uplifted  to  God  the  King  above. 
The  laws  would  begin  to  be  taken  differently,  the 
movement  of  the  people  to  be  like  that  of  a  brother- 
hood and  a  family.  Each  man  would  govern 
himself  by  the  laws  of  God,  and  the  love  of  the 
brotherhood.  There  need  be  no  setting  up  of  an 
earthly  throne,  from  which  the  armies  of  the  Son 
of  David  should  go  forth,  as  those  of  Mohammed 
did  afterward,  to  reduce  a  world  to  an  unwilling 
allegiance;  but  the  armies  of  peaceful  men  would 
go  forth  without  observation,  and  in  time  trans- 
form the  world  through  an  inward  principle,  so 
that,  no  matter  who  sat  upon  the  earthly  thrones, 
the  kingdoms  of  the  world  should  become  "the 
kingdoms  of  our  God  and  of  His  Christ." 

The  throne  of  the  Ascended  Lord  is  fixed  in 
the  heavens.  Is  there  any  doubt  of  the  reality  of 
His  reign  over  ever  vaster  regions?  That  much 
remains  for  the  heavenly  conquest,  though  many 


136  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

of  this  world's  potentates  can  hardly  be  said  to 
reign  for  Christ,  yet  it  has  come  to  pass  that 
hardly  any  one  can  reign  without  Christ.  Those 
who  fail,  in  any  high  sense,  to  represent  Him,  do 
not  dare  rule  without  Him.  And  the  visible 
power  of  His  will  is  seen  in  many  places  where 
He  is  not  owned  at  all. 

"It  is  not  for  you  to  know  the  times  and  the 
seasons."  There  seems  no  doubt  that  the  first 
Christians  did  really  expect  an  early  return  of 
Christ,  and  a  visible  reign  after  that  return.  The 
apostles  note  first  that  some  of  the  new  converts 
looked  for  this  too  soon,  and  that,  what  seemed 
like  delay,  shook  the  faith  of  some ;  but  they  them- 
selves never  wavered  in  believing  the  return  and 
the  victory  sure,  while  they  never  ventured  to  set 
the  day. 

Their  work  was  joy  enough.  They  knew  that 
they  had  the  power  promised  by  our  Lord  before 
He  ascended.  They  went  on  with  their  witness, 
the  witness  of  truth  and  the  witness  of  character. 
They  wrought  from  time  to  time  their  signs  as 
had  been  promised.  They  confided  in  the  wisdom 
of  the  Master.  They  recognized  that  the  work 
they  were  doing  was  His  work,  that  He  still 
worked;  that  His  work  before  His  Ascension  was 
just  a  beginning;  it  was  what  He  "Began  to  do 
and  teach."     And  so,  if  there  were  any  apparent 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  137 

delay,  what  were  they,  that  they  should  think  God 
unwise  or  weak? 

The  past  hundred  years  has  seen  a  great  ap- 
proximation of  nations  governed  on  apparently 
different  methods  toward  the  same  ideals.  Eng- 
land is  a  monarchy,  a  constitutional  monarchy,  as 
it  is  called,  but  it  is  really  a  congeries — that  is, 
the  Empire  is — of  allied  republics.  The  power 
is  in  the  people  with  them,  as  much  as  with  us, 
and,  owing  to  the  more  flexible  character  of  their 
constitution,  sometimes  it  seems  to  us  that  the 
people  can  register  their  will  there  more  easily 
than  here,  though  we  are  nominally  what  they  are 
not.  Parliamentary  ideas  have  elsewhere  made 
gTeat  progress.  And  there  has  been  growth 
toward  international  ideas.  A  common  thought 
has  mitigated  many  of  the  horrors  of  war  through 
societies  like  the  Red  Cross.  Arbitration  has  made 
great  strides.  Nations,  as  such,  seem  to  have  more 
of  a  public  conscience.  We  do  not  say  that  we 
are  satisfied.  We  do  not  think  the  cause  of  mercy, 
of  truth,  of  peace,  of  health,  all  of  which  are 
related  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  moves  fast  enough. 
But  it  moves.  And  we  ought  to  be  stirred  to  co- 
operation with  "every  good  word  and  work." 

But  we  do  not  want  Christ's  kingdom  to  ap- 
pear too  much  like  a  world  power,  or  too  soon. 
So  we  have  to  keep  constantly  returning  to  the 


138  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

real  centres  of  His  power  among  us.  His  power 
is  in  life,  and  must  be,  before  it  is  in  law.  The 
Roman  empire  was  Christian  before  it  was  de- 
clared so.  The  transition  was  only  recognized 
after  it  came.  That  is,  Christianity  had  already 
become  the  strongest  governing  force.  But,  just 
as  soon  as  the  empire  accepted  it  openly,  the  spir- 
itual power  of  Christianity  began  to  decline.  We 
want  no  victories  too  easily.  There  will  be  no 
kingdom  until  we  are  all  fit  to  reign,  and  are 
actually  reigning  over  ourselves.  It  does  not  exalt 
character  to  put  it  on  a  throne.  If  it  is  what  it 
ought  to  be,  it  needs  no  proclamation. 

Thus,  if  Christ  rules  over  the  world  increas- 
ingly, it  must  be  through  the  fact  that  His  servants 
maintain  their  testimony,  and  show  the  force  of 
the  Ascension  in  themselves;  that  they  "in  heart 
and  mind"  have  themselves  ascended,  and  live 
here  below  as  in  the  fellowship  of  the  King ;  walk- 
ing with  their  feet  indeed  on  the  ground,  but 
treading  in  Christ's  footsteps;  and  realizing  that 
Kingship  and  the  kingdom  were  never  more  tri- 
umphantly vindicated  than  when  Pilate  asked  the 
suffering  Man  before  him,  "Art  Thou  a  King 
then  ?"  and  was  answered,  "Thou  sayest  that  I  am 
a  King.  For  this  end  was  I  bom,  and  for  this 
cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that  I  should  bear 
witness  unto  the  Truth." 


HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND  DIVINE 
ANSWERS 

XXI THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEAL    OF    MARRIAGE. 

Is  it  lawful  for  a  man  to  put  away  his  wife  for 
every  cause? — St.  Matt.  19:3. 


! 


VEEYTHING  in  the  law  of  Moses 
was  regarded  by  the  Pharisees  as  the 
perfection  of  enactment,  even  where 
there  was  plainly  a  need  for  an  ad- 
vance upon  it.  There  was  a  divorce  law  there 
which  they  hoped,  by  asking  this  question,  to  use 
in  showing  a  contradiction  between  Christ  and  the 
great  Lawgiver,  which  would  hurt  Christ  with 
devout  people.  But  our  Lord  answered  them  by 
an  appeal  from  Moses  to  Moses;  an  appeal  from 
an  enactment  made  to  meet  and  mitigate  a  heart- 
less and  unhappy  custom  which  had  grown  up,  to 
the  history  recorded  by  Moses  of  man's  origin 
and  essential  character.  "In  the  beginning  it  was 
not  so."    Divorce  does  not  enter  into  the  ideal. 

Before  the  Exodus,  under  the  intolerable  con- 
ditions of  Egyptian  bondage,  and  largely  through 
the  wrong  of  slavery,  men  had  become  addicted 


140  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

to  light  separations.  It  had  become  common  for 
men  to  send  their  wives  away  whenever  they  tired 
of  them.  A  woman,  turned  adrift  in  this  way,  was 
in  a  most  pitiable  position.  Moses  had  to  inter- 
vene in  many  particulars  to  soften  the  lot  of 
women.  And  this  regulation  about  "a  writing  of 
divorcement"  was  not  intended  to  facilitate 
divorce,  but,  in  some  way,  to  protect  the  woman 
who  was  sent  away,  often  without  her  fault.  If 
she  had  such  a  writing,  it  gave  her  some  sort  of 
legal  status.  If  a  woman  went  away  of  her  own 
accord,  that  was  another  matter. 

The  conditions  of  life  in  old  times  seem  to  have 
been  such  that,  if  a  woman  left  her  husband 
voluntarily,  she  left  to  go  to  another  man.  This 
would  put  her  entirely  outside  the  law.  There  was 
no  provision  for  life  apart  from  organized  families. 
A  woman  had  to  be  either  with  one  man,  or 
another.  If  she  were  driven  away  by  cruelty, 
that  is,  not  told  to  go  but  forced  to  go,  of  course 
that  entitled  her  to  compassion;  but  it  would  not 
generally  alter  the  fact  that  she  would  have  to 
go  to  another  man.  This  is  what  our  Lord  meant 
when  He  said  that,  when  a  man  put  away  his 
wife,  he  caused  her  to  commit  adultery.  If  a 
woman  went  away  deliberately  therefore,  without 
compulsion  of  any  kind,  this  was  therefore  because 
she  purposed  to  go  to  someone  else,   and  would 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  141 

therefore  be  unfaithful  in  her  heart  before  she 
left.  If  a  law  could  have  been  always  enforced 
against  such,  she  would  have  been  punished  with 
death  for  such  behavior;  but  then  it  could  not 
always  be  enforced. 

In  our  Lord's  answer  here  He  goes  back  to 
first  principles,  by  showing  that,  on  any  fair  con- 
sideration of  the  purpose  of  the  Creator  in  insti- 
tuting marriage.  Divorce  ought  not  to  he.  In  any 
fair  study  of  the  question  we  ought,  as  Christians, 
to  begin  with  God's  evident  declared  purpose.  Let 
the  details  of  any  particular  case  rest  until  we 
have  this  firmly  fixed  in  our  minds,  Divorce  ought 
not  to  be.  A  firm  grasp  of  this  by  our  civil 
judges,  who  are  given  some  discretion  in  certain 
cases  where  they  may  or  may  not  grant  divorces, 
would  prevent  them  from  acting  lightly.  Let 
them  put  alongside  the  question,  ^'Is  it  lawful?" 
that  other  question,  ''Would  this  be  right  ?"  For 
law  and  right  are  not  always  as  close  as  they 
should  be. 

The  constitution  of  our  nature  tells  us  a  good 
deal  about  the  purposes  of  God  for  us.  We  think 
we  are  the  crown  of  the  animal  creation.  We  are 
more  than  that ;  we  are  certainly  not  less  than  that. 
We  are  all  persuaded  that  we  are  the  highest  of 
the  creatures,  but  we  must  have  reasons  for  so 
considering.      What   do  we  mean  by   "high,"   or 


142  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

^'higher?''  Man's  logical  faculty  demands  the 
answer.  Considering  ourselves  from  the  animal 
side,  we  need  animal  reasons.  We  say  some 
animals  are  high,  and  some  low.  What  makes 
them  high  or  lower  ? 

There  would  have  to  be  the  consideration  of 
many  details  before  we  could  get  that  question 
fully  answered,  but  here  is  something  we  would 
have  to  take  into  account.  It  would  be  impossible 
for  us  not  to  regard  animals  that  remain  with 
their  mates  as,  in  that  respect,  higher  than  those 
that  do  not.  We  are  formed  mentally  to  admire 
fidelity.  A  mating,  therefore,  that  continued 
through  a  whole  season,  in  which  the  male  helped 
provide  for  his  offspring,  seems  to  mark  a  higher 
animal  than  where  the  male,  like  some  of  the  cat 
family,  is  dangerous  to  his  offspring.  If  the  mat- 
ing lasted  beyond  a  season,  from  one  year  to 
another,  that  would  mark  still  higher  things. 

l^ow  the  need  of  the  male  as  a  provider  in- 
creases with  the  length  of  the  time  the  young  are 
helpless.  It  is  plainly  greatest  in  man.  Man  has 
the  greatest  natural  reason  for  faithfulness  beyond 
a  single  season,  as  the  dependence  of  his  children 
lasts  until  there  may  have  been  several  successive 
births  following  each  other.  For  the  man  to  for- 
sake his  dependent  offspring  is  a  crime  against 
his  species,  unless  you  can  suppose  it  would  be 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  143 

more  natural  for  a  stranger  to  care  for  them, 
which  is  absurd.  And  woman  cannot  be  expected 
to  care  for  them  alone. 

A  mother-hen  has  chicks  who  can  begin  to 
pick  up  their  own  food,  can  run  alone  the  day 
thej  are  hatched.  All  they  need  is  brief  shelter, 
hovering  and  defence.  The  hen  is  entirely  free 
of  one  brood  before  she  has  another.  The  hen 
does  not  need  a  consort  to  help  her  except  occasion- 
ally to  fight  an  enemy,  and  the  male,  though 
polygamous,  is  never  far  away. 

A  mother-robin  has  to  find  food  as  well  as  give 
shelter,  so  she  needs  a  faithful  consort;  but  she  is 
also  free  of  one  brood  before  she  has  another.  She 
only  needs  the  male  as  long  as  the  young  are 
nestlings ;  nevertheless,  her  instinct  of  faithfulness 
lasts  beyond  the  single  brood. 

The  mother-woman  is  described  in  the  proph- 
ecy, "I  will  greatly  multiply  thy  sorrows  and  thy 
conception."  So  far  from  being  free  from  her 
first  care  before  the  second  comes,  the  first  child 
needs  more  care  as  a  little  toddler  than  when  it  is 
in  her  arms.  It  can  walk,  but  walk  into  danger; 
it  can  eat,  but  eat  dangerous  things.  And  at  the 
very  time  it  is  thus  needy,  the  coming  of  the 
second  child  robs  the  mother  of  some  of  her 
strength  and  quickness  to  help. 

So  the  physiology  of  the  race  demands  that 


144  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

the  man  should  remain  true.  Leave  morals  out. 
It  is  Nature  that  demands  faithfulness.  And  by 
the  time  the  childbearing  period  is  completed,  any 
reasonable  couple  simply  could  not  separate.  It 
is  too  late,  unless  death  has  intervened,  to  begin 
new  relationships.  This  shows  itself  among  those 
animals  we  most  admire.  Those  which  could 
change  mates,  and  sometimes  do,  often  remain 
faithful  through  successive  seasons,  and  show  clear 
signs  of  something  that  looks  like  love.  When  we 
see  cases  like  this  there  is  an  immediate  outflow 
of  sympathy.  Our  heart  approves.  Simply  then, 
regarding  man  as  the  highest  of  the  animals. 
Divorce  ought  not  to  be,  for  the  sake  of  the 
children. 

As  the  stability  of  marriage  is  demanded  for 
the  sake  of  the  children,  it  is  plain  that  children 
are  the  governing  reason  for  marriage.  A  deliber- 
ately childless  marriage  is  unnatural,  and  a  per- 
version of  nature.  It  is  entirely  an  invention  of 
our  own,  and  is  "earthly,  sensual,"  and  careful, 
scheming  selfishness.     This  also  has  a  Bible  name. 

A  generally  accepted  statement  would  be  that 
the  law  of  our  American  Church  on  the  subject 
of  divorce  has  been  growing  in  strictness.  But  this 
is  not  correct.  The  Church  has  no  law  about 
divorce  at  all.  She  cannot  divorce  people.  All 
she  knows  about  it  is  that  God  did  not  intend  it: 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  145 

Christ  deplored  it.  We  have  a  law  of  Marriage, 
not  a  law  of  Divorce.  It  is  the  State  that  divorces, 
and  the  State  is  thereby  busy  in  overthrowing  her 
own  foundations,  for  she  is  founded  on  the  family. 
Overthrow  the  family,  and  you  get  anarchy. 

Part  of  our  marriage  law  has  been  made, 
however,  in  consequence  of  the  acts  of  the  State. 
We  have  to  enquire  as  to  the  right  of  persons 
divorced  by  the  State  to  marry  again  in  the  life- 
time of  the  other  party.  Here  is  where  the  Church's 
discipline  has  been  growing  more  strict,  as  she  has 
more  and  more  recurred  to  her  fundamental  prin- 
ciple. Divorce  ought  not  to  be. 

Marriage  is  now  apparently  looked  upon  by 
^^emancipated  women,"  as  they  are  queerly  styled, 
as  a  sort  of  bondage.  What  has  gone  before  shows 
that  it  really  saves  her  from  abandonment.  She 
must  have  children ;  her  heart  demands  them ;  she 
is  not  fully  blessed  without  them.  But  if  she  has 
them  she  needs  help.  Christian  marriage  makes 
her  safe.  Even  Moses'  apparently  lax  regulation 
was  in  her  interest,  as  against  a  worse  custom. 
But  now,  alas,  it  is  the  woman  who  is  often  at- 
tacking her  own  purity  and  safety.  Woman's 
purity  is  her  crown.  We  have  been  taught  to 
revere  her.  It  is  not  woman,  then,  but  pure  Man, 
our  Lord  Himself,  whom  we  must  listen  to,  to 
understand  our  duties. 


146  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

Let   US   state   a   typical   divorce   case   in   its 
history.     The  facts  answer  to  conditions  in  hun- 
dreds of  cases. 

Mrs.  X.  is  not  altogether  happily  married, 
nor  altogether  unhappily;  but  she  is  selfish,  badly 
taught,  and  does  not  know  that  love  has  no  promise 
of  continuance  unless  it  is  real,  and  therefore  self- 
sacrificing.  Mr.  X.  is  just  like  his  wife.  Up  to 
this  point  the  situation  can  be  saved  by  giving  it 
a  religious  turn.  Neither  has  yet  been  unfaithful, 
nor  yet  fully  devoted.  Neither  has  fully  realized 
what  Christian  marriage  really  is. 

Mr.  X.  begins  to  flirt,  for  it  is  always  easy  to 
find  somebody  to  flirt  with.  Mrs.  X.  observes, 
and  her  cure  for  the  situation  is  to  revenge  herself 
by  herself  engaging  in  a  flirtation.  Neither  thinks 
of  the  soul  of  the  other,  or  of  his  own.  There  is 
no  awakening  of  conscience.  Finally  Mrs.  X. 
gets  caught  by  the  superior  attractiveness  of  "the 
other  man."  It  would  never  do  to  put  herself  in 
the  wrong  publicly,  so  she  draws  back  from  her 
husband,  offering  him  nothing,  in  hopes  that  in 
his  estrangement  he  may  go  too  far,  and  she  may 
get  evidence  against  him  that  will  entitle  her  to 
a  divorce  as  the  "innocent  party.''  Then  she  will 
be  in  a  position  to  marry  the  man  she  prefers. 
Is  she  innocent  ? 

Or,  if  you  are  offended  at  supposing  this  of 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  147 

any  woman,  begin  again  with  Mr.  X.  Let  the 
man  plan  the  divorce,  neglect  his  wife,  goad  her 
into  impossible  situations,  lower  her  sense  of 
delicacy  by  coarseness  in  word  and  deed,  throw 
her  with  others  until  she  falls,  then  let  him  sue 
for  a  divorce  as  the  "innocent  party.''  Is  he  in- 
nocent? Sit  down  if  you  think  so,  and  try  to 
write  what  the  devil  would  really  be  like.  Such 
a  statement  of  facts  as  either  of  these  could  be 
duplicated  in  real  life  a  hundred  times  over. 

'No  person  is  "innocent"  in  the  mind  of  the 
Church,  who,  before  a  divorce  has  even  contem- 
plated and  planned  marriage  with  another.  Un- 
faithfulness in  heart  is  just  unfaithfulness, 
nothing  else.  And  divorces  which  are  amicably 
agreed  upon  between  married  people,  either  of 
them  having  a  second  marriage  in  view,  are  a 
deliberate  wickedness,  which  our  courts  are  con- 
stantly sanctioning  against  the  clear  law  of  the 
land.  For  collusion  vitiates  all  proceedings  of  this 
kind. 

God  help  us,  as  Christians,  to  take  Christ's 
view  as  law  for  us,  whether  it  is  hard,  in  any 
case,  or  not.  Christianity  has  the  same  thing  to 
say  to  everybody,  married  or  single,  "ISTo  cross, 


THE  SHADOW  OF  PETER 

They  brought  forth  the  sick  into  the  streets  and  laid 
them  on  beds  and  couches,  that  at  the  least  the  shadow 
of  Peter  passing  by  might  overshadow  some  of  them. 
— Acts  5 :  15. 

HE  large  and  immediate  influence 
gained  by  our  Lord's  Apostles  over 
the  dwellers  in  Jerusalem  so  soon 
after  they  began  preaching  the  Gos- 
pel of  the  Resurrection,  is  worthy  of  very  close 
attention.  Any  multitude,  as  a  multitude,  is  more 
easily  swayed  than  are  a  few,  and  who  has  not 
felt  the  pull  and  draw  of  a  great  crowd  in  action? 
But  if  the  crowd  be  hostile  to  begin  with,  then 
the  work  is  very  hard. 

Now  it  has  been  said  that  those  who  formed 
the  shouting  chorus  at  Christ's  triumphal  entry 
into  Jerusalem  were  the  same  people  as  those 
who,  five  days  afterward,  cried,  "Crucify  Him ! 
Crucify    Him !"     This,    however,    can    hardly   be 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  149 

more  than  sketchily  true.  There  may  have  been 
a  few  of  the  same  people  among  the  class  most 
easily  influenced.  But  the  procession  which  cried 
^^Hosanna!''  was  largely  composed  of  Galileans, 
and  other  visitors  at  Jerusalem  most  favorable  to 
Christ;  while  those  who  cried  "Crucify  Him!" 
were,  more  than  probably,  people  who  were  under 
the  closer  influence  of  the  chief  priest.  Still  it  is 
easy  to  be  carried  away. 

Then  it  is  worth  noticing  that,  even  where 
men  are  drawn  into  a  movement  by  reasons  rather 
than  impulses,  the  reasons  need  not  at  first  be  of 
the  highest.  Partial  reasons  may  give  place  to 
higher  ones.  It  is  inconceivable  that  our  Lord's 
disciples  can  have  had  the  same  full  reasons  for 
obedience  when  He  first  said,  "Follow  Me,"  as 
afterward,  when  He  gave  the  same  command  to 
Peter  at  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  after  His  resurrec- 
tion. 

Those  who  heard  Peter's  Pentecostal  sermon 
were,  doubtless,  as  many  were  converted  on  that 
occasion,  in  a  state  of  some  preparation.  Their 
minds  were  like  fuel,  ready  laid  for  the  match  to 
be  applied.  And  there  were  so  many  of  these 
first  converts  that  there  must  soon  have  been  an 
enkindling  effect  on  slower  minds.  And  this  in- 
fluence must  have  grown,  day  by  day,  with  the 
miracles  of  healing,  of  which  the  one  wrought  by 


150  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

Peter  and  John  upon  the  lame  man  at  the  Beautiful 
Gate  of  the  Temple  was  probably  no  more  remark- 
able, except  in  its  immediate  publicity,  than  some 
of  the  others.  We  may  suppose  it  to  have  been 
given  as  a  type.  It  was,  in  its  wonder  and  grand- 
eur, like  some  of  our  Lord's  miracles,  and  im- 
pressed the  people  just  as  much.  But  our  Lord's 
miracles  were  done  in  the  power  of  His  own  Per- 
son, and  those  of  Peter  and  John  were  wrought  in 
His  J^ame. 

It  is  not  likely  that  those  in  need  of  help,  sub- 
merged in  the  great  mass  of  suffering  which  then, 
more  than  now,  probably  abounded,  at  first  clearly 
made  this  discrimination.  They  would  be  more 
interested  in  deliverance  than  in  the  precise 
method,  and  probably  gave  Peter  some  of  the 
glory  which  belonged  to  God. 

But,  equally  with  that  man  who  was  born 
blind,  and  healed  by  our  Lord,  they  would  have 
scouted  the  idea  that  beneficent  works  could  come 
from  sinners.  The  influence  of  the  Gospel,  and 
of  the  preachers  of  the  Gospel,  is  meant  to  grow 
through  good  works.  This  is  the  beginning  of  the 
story  of  modern  missionary  success.  It  is  hos- 
pitals, homes,  the  children  who  have  been  saved, 
the  women  who  have  been  comforted,  and  rescued, 
that  have  opened  the  hearts  of  China  and  of  India 
to  the  Gosped.     These  things   are  the   more  im- 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  161 

pressive  in  the  foreign  field  because  it  is  easy  to 
see  there  that  Christian  hospitals  were,  at  first, 
the  only  hospitals.  Over  here  it  is  not  always 
clear  without  thought,  and  a  mental  survey  of  his- 
tory, that  there  would  have  been  no  modern  philan- 
thropy without  an  underlying  Christianity. 

The  sacred  narrative  does  not  say  how  much 
good  was  done  by  the  shadow  of  Peter;  it  does 
say  that  his  influence  was  so  great  that,  while  nat- 
urally his  time  and  his  personal  attention  had  to  be 
limited,  it  was  believed  that  he  could  do  good  with- 
out bestowing  a  look  or  a  word,  without  knowing 
the  persons  to  be  benefitted.  And  it  seems  far 
from  impossible  that  this  might  have  been  the 
case.  At  first  the  beginnings  of  many  a  cure  are 
grounded  in  hope.  And  this  hope  is  powerfully 
helped  by  the  belief  that  God  cares,  and  ^'has 
visited  His  people."  Many  cures  are  wrought 
by  doctors  in  spite  of  their  medicines.  They  need 
a  healing  will,  quite  as  much  as  knowledge  of 
medicine.  And  this  is  no  modern  discovery.  It 
is  not  beyond  the  possibilities  that  Peter's  shadow 
may  have  healed  people  that  Peter  himself  would 
not  have  known  how  to  heal.  The  clergy  have 
often  done  good  to  the  sick  and  afflicted  by  sym- 
pathetic visitation  until  they  began  to  talk;  then, 
sometimes,  naturally,  they  blundered. 

A  true  story  is  told  of  a  quiet  clergyman,  large- 


152  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

hearted  but  not  otherwise  remarkable  for  talent, 
who  was  minister  of  a  plain  little  mission  in  a 
crowded,  poor  neighborhood  in  a  large  western 
city.  Of  course  there  was  the  usual  large  foreign 
element,  not  very  accessible  to  us,  and  the  unap- 
proachableness  of  many  others,  which  is  one  of  the 
bitter  fruits  of  separatism  among  Christians.  He 
had  a  great  deal  to  do,  but  he  had  the  will  to  do 
more  than  seemed  possible.  His  fundamental 
thought  was  to  spread  the  blessing  of  God.  He 
was  observed  to  be  a  good  deal  on  the  streets,  and 
not  often  on  the  same  streets.  He  rarely  travelled 
the  same  way  twice  in  succession  from  his  lodg- 
ing to  his  mission.  He  became  a  very  familiar 
and  much  respected  figure  on  the  streets  of  the 
whole  district,  known  and  observed  by  hundreds 
of  people  who  had  no  immediate  connection  with 
his  church. 

He  was  asked  curiously  about  these  peram- 
bulations, and  answered  that  he  got  the  idea  from 
the  ^^shadow  of  Peter."  There  was  not  an  atom 
of  conceit  or  self-assertion  in  his  make-up.  But 
he  felt  that  he  was  known  to  be  somebody  besides 
himself,  in  other  words,  "a  man  of  God."  When 
people  saw  him  they  thought  instantly  of  the 
Church,  of  the  Christian  ministry,  perhaps  of 
God;  superficially,  perhaps,  but  superficial 
thoughts  sometimes  introduce  deeper  ones.     It  is 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  153 

no  small  thing  to  know  when  we  see  a  man  that 
he  is  wholly  occupied  in  proving  God's  good  will 
toward  men,  himself  doing  good  as  far  as  his 
knowledge  and  strength  go,  being  inwardly  moved 
thereto  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

It  was  a  characteristic  saying  of  Bishop  Joseph 
Butler,  ''Things  are  what  they  are ;  and  their  con- 
sequences will  be  what  they  will  be."  If  we  are 
good,  it  isn't  necessary  that  we  should  say  any- 
thing about  it.  Nor  is  it  necessary  that  we  should 
be  highly  placed,  or  highly  talented.  Very  quiet 
persons  are  often  allowed  to  get  into  closer  con- 
tact with  their  neighbors  than  those  who  make  a 
louder  appeal  for  notice.  They  do  not  disturb 
or  bump  corners.  And  when  you  get  close  to 
people  they  know  whether  you  are  good  or  not, 
because  good  people  are  consistently  self-forgetful, 
and  consistently  kind.  And  kindness,  meekness, 
gentleness — what  a  large  part  of  nursing  they  are ! 
And  they  are  not  "born  of  the  flesh." 

When  Peter  and  John  restored  the  lame  man 
at  the  Beautiful  Gate,  you  remember  what  Peter's 
words  were:  "Silver  and  gold  have  I  none,  but 
such  as  I  have  give  I  thee."  Philanthropy  now 
is  so  connected  with  great  givers,  astonishing  bene- 
factions, that  the  private  man  is  awed.  Anything 
he  can  possibly  do  seems  so  insignificant.  And 
yet  the  thought  of  the  world  is  not  altogether  clear 


164  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

about  these  tremendous  benefactions;  for  there  is 
no  note  of  self-sacrifice  about  them.  Nor  could 
they  be  put  into  actual  effect  without  the  quiet 
assistance  of  thousands  of  faithful  and  devoted 
lives.  The  world  will  never  outgrow  the  need  of 
the  "cup  of  cold  water"  personally  administered, 
or  the  touch  of  a  sympathetic  hand.  There  is  need 
just  where  we  are,  and  the  need  is  of  something 
in  personality.  Not  by  expecting  great  things  at 
first,  and  being  dashed  by  failure  into  hopeless- 
ness of  doing  any  good,  is  our  influence  to  be 
effected.  Knowledge  of  our  weakness  is  incom- 
plete knowledge;  for  God  is  strong  enough,  and 
we  must  know  that,  too.  If  we  only  "grow  in 
grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,"  then  "we  are  what  we  are," 
and  our  effects  in  our  sphere  "will  be  what  they 
will  be." 

And  quiet  goodness  reaps,  even  in  this  life,  an 
exceedingly  comfortable  reward.  Children  are 
very  safe  judges.  The  men  and  women  who  draw 
children  are  apt  to  be  pretty  safe  company  for 
anybody.  The  arms  of  little  children  bring  great 
comfort  as  they  cling  to  those  they  trust.  And 
how  often  the  true  friend,  Avho  has  neither  talent 
or  eloquence,  has  the  reward  of  standing  by  in 
such  words  as  "I  like  to  have  you  around." 

We  see,  then,  that  our  character  is  not  merely 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  155 

our  own  affair.  God  meant  us  to  carry  and  spread 
His  light,  and  there  are  dark  places  under  the 
stairs,  and  behind  the  door,  where  a  candle  can 
be  carried,  but  the  moonlight  will  not  reach. 

It  is  impossible  to  limit  closely  the  quiet  effects 
of  character.  Many  a  one  is  often  deeply  in- 
fluenced by  people  very  little  known  to  him.  The 
brave  bearing  of  a  burden,  the  sanctifying  of  an 
almost  impossible  home,  the  evidence  of  true 
charity  and  forgiveness,  the  absolute  patience  of 
some  few  people  with  what  we  call  "chronic"  and 
unimproving  cases  of  dependency,  give  us  word- 
less comfort,  wordless  admonition  every  day, 
where  there  has  been  no  thought  of  influencing 
us  particularly.  But  such  people  must  think  a 
great  deal  about  serving  God. 

And  thus,  as  God  gave  the  magnet  drawing 
power,  and  the  wind  its  cooling  touch,  and  the  vio- 
let its  fragrance  though  it  cannot  speak,  so  He  has 
given  us  our  shadows,  the  unconscious  reach  of 
our  influence.  In  the  high  noon  of  life  the 
shadow  looks  small,  for  our  conscious  activity  is 
then  so  high,  and  absorbs  our  thought.  But  when 
we  cannot  do  so  much  that  seems  to  count,  it  may 
comfort  us  to  observe  that  in  the  early  morning 
and  the  late  afternoon  the  shadows  draw  long.  So 
may  the  untainted,  unconscious  sweetness  of  child- 
hood transform  many  a  household,   and  so  may 


156  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

God  perhaps  throw  far  behind  us  the  shadowing 
reach  of  a  holy  life,  as  the  sun  goes  down. 

One  cannot  avoid  the  thought,  too,  that  the 
strange  companion,  the  shadow  always  sticking  so 
close  to  us,  brings  to  mind  the  guardian  angel  God 
sends  to  minister  to  us,  by  ministering  fo?-  us,  and 
thus  fulfilling  our  really  strongest  desire. 


FRAGRANT  SERVICE 


She  hath  done  what  she  could. — St.  Mark  14 :  8. 


IWL. 


HE  pious  act  of  Mary  of  Bethany,  in 
anointing  our  Lord  with  the  precious 
spikenard  a  few  days  before  His  Pas- 
sion, must  not  be  confused  with  the 
anointing  performed  by  the  unnamed  woman, 
who  was  "a  sinner,"  in  the  house  of  one  of  the 
chief  Pharisees,  as  described  in  the  seventh  chap- 
ter of  St.  Luke. 

It  is  true  that  both  anointings  were  done  in 
the  house  of  a  man  named  Simon,  but  this  by  no 
means  identifies  the  two  Simons  as  the  same  per- 
son. There  were  two  Simons,  even  among  the 
twelve  Apostles,  and  the  name  was  extremely 
common.  All  the  other  details  were  different. 
Mary  anoints  the  Saviour's  head ;  the  other  woman 
His  feet.  The  objector  in  one  case  was  Judas 
Iscariot,  in  the  other  the  host  himself.  Simon 
objected,  not  so  much  to  the  act  of  anointing,  as 


168  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

to  the  character  of  the  woman  who  was  doing  it. 
But  the  objection  made  by  Judas,  in  the  house  of 
the  other  Simon  at  Bethany,  was  against  the 
wastefulness  of  the  anointing.  The  ointment 
ought  to  have  been  sold  and  given  to  the  poor,  or, 
that  was  what  he  claimed,  though  insincerely.  He 
could  not  have  objected  to  the  person  doing  it,  for 
she  was  the  daughter  of  the  house. 

The  value  of  the  ointment  was  very  great;  it 
is  given  as  three  hundred  pence.  This,  of  course, 
on  the  face  of  it  tells  us  very  little  until  by  com- 
parison with  another  scripture^our  Lord's  par- 
able of  the  Laborers  in  the  Vineyard — we  learn 
that  a  penny  was  considered  a  fair  day's  wage  in 
harvest  time,  when  laborers  were  naturally  in 
great  demand.  Beckoning  out  Sabbaths,  it  would 
have  taken  a  man  a  full  year  to  earn  three  hun- 
dred pence,  and  of  course  a  good  many  years  to 
save  such  a  sum.  It  would  be  counted  a  small 
fortune,  and  this  was  what  was  lavished  upon  our 
Lord  in  an  instant. 

Hearing  such  an  objection  as  that  of  Judas 
stated,  there  are  hundreds  who  at  first  blush  would 
be  inclined  to  think  he  was  right;  so  it  is  worth 
while  to  look  into  the  matter  carefully. 

Is  the  gift  of  money  to  the  poor  absolutely  the 
best  use  that  can  be  made  of  it?  Our  Lord  did 
not  seem  to  think  so;  and  yet  He  certainly  cared 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  169 

for  the  poor  as  we  do  not.  He  intimates  clearly 
that  we  have  plenty  of  opportunities  for  helping 
the  poor,  and  that  what  is  lacking  generally  is  not 
so  much  the  power  to  help  them  as  the  will.  And 
as  we  may  easily  lack  the  money  to  help  them 
when  we  are  asked  for  it,  our  Lord's  statement, 
that  we  may  do  good  to  them  whenever  we  will, 
seems  to  indicate  that  the  best  help  we  can  give 
them  may  not  be  money  at  all. 

We  may  soothe  ourselves  sometimes  by  giving 
money  where  it  isn't  really  asked,  and  is  not  the 
true  remedy.  What  may  be  needed  is  an  investi- 
gation, to  show  how  to  help  the  poor  man  earn  a 
better  living,  and  save  his  self-respect,  one  of  his 
most  precious  treasures.  Then,  too,  we  have  no 
right  to  give  in  so-called  charities  money,  though 
we  call  it  our  own,  if  it  really  is  due  elsewhere. 
Something  certainly  must  be  due  to  God,  from 
whom,  first,  all  good  things  come.  There  is 
plenty  of  money  for  everyone  if  it  were  distrib- 
uted right,  but  no  one  knows  how  to  do  that.  An 
even  distribution  would  hardly  do  unless  virtue 
could  also  be  evenly  distributed. 

If  the  ointment  was  not  to  have  been  poured 
out  on  Christ,  what  would  have  become  of  it,  any- 
how? Ointment  cannot  be  used  for  any  purpose 
except  one.  If  it  were  sold  for  money  to  be  given 
away,  that  would  simply  put  the  ointment  into 


160  HPMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

other  hands.  It  must  still  ultimately  be  used,  if 
at  all,  to  anoint  some  other  person  less  worthy  to 
enjoy  its  fragrance,  or  to  be  honored  so  signally. 
The  maker  of  it  had  been  paid  already,  and  Mary 
put  its  beautiful  fragrance  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Author  of  all  beauty  and  fragrance;  and  all  the 
guests  shared  it,  nor  did  its  odor  soon  pass  away. 
The  fragrance  lingers  yet,  as  our  Lord  said  it 
would,  in  the  story  that  tells  of  it.  Then,  too,  if 
we  consider  the  needs  of  poverty,  our  Lord  Him- 
self was  the  typical  Poor  Man,  the  representative 
of  all  holy  poverty.  Things  done  for  the  poor  are 
always  done  for  Him,  if  done  in  the  right  spirit. 
If  we  give  them  thought  enough,  respect  enough, 
love  enough,  sympathy  enough,  we  will  find  that 
they,  too,  would  almost  rather  have  precious  oint- 
ment than  bread;  for  they  have  hearts  and  souls 
to  be  satisfied,  as  well  as  the  bare  needs  of  the  body. 
On  the  other  hand,  nothing  done  for  Christ  is 
ever  really  taken  away  from  the  poor.  All  beau- 
tiful things  given  to  churches  minister  indirectly 
to  the  poor. 

But  Mary  was  specially  commended  by  our 
Lord  because  her  service  of  God  went  to  the  limit 
of  her  powers.  How  many  there  are  who  are 
doing  some  good,  but  doing  it  in  a  complaining 
way,  as  if  they  were  doing  too  much !  They  would 
never    have    wasted    any    ointment    upon    Christ. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  161 

They  certainly  do  not  and  cannot  appreciate  the 
blessedness  of  giving,  because  ''The  Lord  loveth  a 
cheerful  giver."  The  spirit  in  which  Mary 
wrought  was  precisely  that  of  the  poor  widow  who 
gave  her  two  mites  to  the  temple  Treasury,  a  gift 
which  was  commended  by  our  Lord  not  because  it 
was  little,  but  because  it  was  all  she  could  possibly 
give,  being  all  she  had.  It  really  stood,  as  did 
Mary's  ointment,  for  the  surrender  of  self,  for 
absolute,  heart-whole  devotion. 

Now  our  Mother  Church  specially  needs  the 
whole-souled  attention  of  her  children  to  her  doc- 
trine, and  their  duty.  There  are  so  many  poor 
Churchmen.  And  this  is  true  in  two  senses.  There 
are  many  who  call  themselves  Churchmen  who  do 
not  seem,  really,  to  believe  in  the  Church  at  all! 
They  do  not  seem  to  realize  that  an  Apostolic  min- 
istry, or  valid  sacraments,  have  any  exclusive 
claim  on  their  allegiance,  and  all  they  bring  to  the 
Church's  standard  is  weakness,  dead  weight,  and 
discouragement.  And  then  there  are  some  who 
would  be  very  much  surprised  to  be  told  that  they 
were  poor  Churchmen. 

"Why,"  say  they,  "we  believe  in  the  Apostolic 
succession.  We  don't  think  that  these  modern 
churches  are  any  churches  at  all.  Ours  is,  of 
course,  the  right  doctrine  and  the  right  way.  We 
have  an  incomparable  liturgy,"  and  so  on.     Still 


162  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

they  hang  back  when  asked  to  attend  church,  teach 
in  Sunday  school,  help  in  singing,  work  in  the 
parish,  interrupt  for  a  moment  their  plans  to  use 
for  themselves  and  their  own  pleasure  God's  good 
gifts  of  time,  treasure,  talent  or  instruction.  They 
have  the  ointment  all  right,  but  it  is  neither  for 
Christ,  nor  the  poor.  There  is  no  real  love  of  God 
in  their  hearts. 

The  Church  seldom  ventures  to  ask  us  to  do  all 
we  can.  Usually  very  modestly  and  simply — be- 
cause we  have  been  so  often  refused — we  just  ask 
people  to  do  something,  but  to  do  it  regularly, 
reliably,  cheerfully,  and  sympathetically.  Some 
people  do  things,  thank  God,  that  seem  to  carry  a 
fragrance.  But  who  does  now  in  the  Church,  or 
for  our  Saviour's  sake,  as  much  as  he  can?  And 
who  realizes  the  question  of  life  and  death  that  is 
bound  up  here,  or  that  we  must  answer  for  all 
unused  opportunities  at  the  Day  of  Judgment  ? 

Christians  are  too  often  like  moral  bankrupts 
trying  to  compromise  with  duty  at  about  fifteen 
cents  on  the  dollar ;  and  trying  to  feel  virtuous  on 
top  of  that.  How  much  we  need  the  splendid  in- 
spiration of  Mary's  example:  for  "she  hath  done 
what  she  could,"  and  many  quiet  Maries  since 
have  followed  her  example. 

The  actual  performance  of  the  members  of 
this  Church  is  most  pitiful.     It  is  of  very  little 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  163 

consequence  that  we  are  probably  not  the  wealth- 
iest Church,  'per  capita;  we  are  wealthy  enough 
to  lay  just  responsibilities  upon  us  up  to  ten  times 
what  we  manage  to  do.  The  Church  abounds  in 
talent,  in  education,  in  young  people  who  have  had, 
or  are  having,  every  opportunity ;  but  a  mere  hand- 
ful are  doing  the  work  in  every  parish.  This  does 
not  entitle  them  to  complain  of  what  they  do;  but 
does  give  them  a  just  right  to  indignation  against 
the  idle. 

How  is  the  ministry  of  Christ  to  bring  to  these 
idle  members  the  comfort  they  will  urgently  de- 
mand in  time  of  trouble,  if  their  weariness  is  not 
from  labor,  if  their  poverty  is  from  waste  and  not 
misfortune,  their  sickness  from  excess,  or  their 
bereavement  from  selfish  neglect?  We  have  had 
to  meet  all  these  cases  among  those  who  profess 
and  call  themselves  Churchmen. 

Then  may  God  forgive  us,  the  Holy  Spirit 
enkindle  us,  that  Christ  may  at  the  last  ap- 
prove us. 


THE  HEM  OF  CHRIST'S 
GARMENT 

//  I  may  hut  touch  His  garment  I  shall  he  whole. — 
St.  Matt.  9:21. 

UR  Lord's  ministerial  life  was  one  of 
constant  interruptions.  He  was  en- 
gaged in  answering  a  question  about 
fasting,  put  to  Him,  apparently  in 
good  faith,  by  some  of  John  Baptist's  disciples, 
when  He  was  interrupted  by  the  coming  of  one 
Jairus,  a  ruler  of  the  synagogue  in  Capernaum, 
who  begged  Him  to  come  and  heal  his  daughter, 
a  girl  about  twelve  years  old,  who  was  already  in 
a  dying  condition. 

He  went  on  His  way  toward  the  house  of 
Jairus  without  hesitation,  but,  while  He  was  go- 
ing, another  interruption  occurred.  He  had  with 
Him  His  usual  disciples  and  a  curious  crowd,  some 
of  them  favorable  to  Him,  some  unfavorable,  some 
simply  inquisitive.     All  those  as  they  went  were 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  165 

much  more  observant  of  Him  than  of  each  other, 
but  many  of  them  far  from  careful  to  refrain  from 
jostling  Him.  Our  Lord  was  losing  no  time  on 
the  way,  and  was  probably  improving  it  by  speech 
as  He  walked. 

Unnoticed  in  the  crowd,  an  unfortunate 
woman,  a  chronic  invalid,  one  whose  infirmity,  if 
generally  known,  would  have  caused  her  to  be  con- 
sidered legally  unclean,  and  so  forbidden  to  come 
into  contact  with  anyone  else  until  purified,  came 
behind  Him,  and,  bending  over,  touched  the  hem 
of  His  garment.  She  had  been  sick  twelve  years. 
She  had  tried  hard  to  be  cured,  and  physicians 
were  ignorant  and  brutal,  many  of  them,  in  those 
days.  So  we  are  told  that  she  ''had  suffered  many 
things  of  many  physicians,  and  was  nothing  bet- 
tered, but  rather  grew  worse.'' 

She  observed  that  Christ  seemed  to  be  healing 
everyone  without  price,  and  hurting  no  one.  He 
seemed  to  be  perfectly  unselfish,  and  nothing  was 
too  hard  for  Him.  Perhaps,  being  consciously 
unclean,  she  feared  to  ask  Him  to  touch  her,  but 
that  there  was  enough  healing  power  in  His  Per- 
son to  flow  out,  even  upon  His  garments,  she  had 
not  a  doubt.  But  again,  perhaps  the  secrecy  of 
her  act  was  dictated  entirely  by  modesty,  and  a 
desire  not  to  trouble  or  delay  Him.  She  thought 
He  could  bless  without  knowing  it,  and  what  He 


166  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

gave  He  would  not  miss.  That  she  might  not  be 
healed  seems  never  to  have  occurred  to  her.  And 
she  was  healed  instantly.  She  had  come  silently, 
and  withdrew  silently  with  her  blessing,  but  not 
so  great  a  one  as  she  was  destined  to  have. 

Our  Lord,  however,  stopped  at  once,  and  caused 
very  great  surprise  by  asking,  "Who  touched  Me  ?" 
He  had  been  in  a  street  crowd,  a  narrow  street,  and 
not  an  entirely  polite  crowd,  and  even  His  dis- 
ciples were  very  much  surprised  by  the  question. 
Who  hadnt  touched  Him?  But  only  one  per- 
son had  touched  Him  with  faith,  and  so  the  con- 
tact of  His  sacred  Person  had  blessed  but  one ;  and 
of  the  virtue  which  had  gone  out  of  Him  to  heal 
the  poor  woman  He  was  perfectly  conscious.  So 
He  insisted,  "Somebody  touched  Me !'' 

So  the  poor  woman,  seeing  that  Christ  knew, 
though  very  much  frightened,  and  not  quite  under- 
standing, came  and  confessed  her  unclean  sick- 
ness, her  secret  boldness,  her  faith,  and  then  that 
she  had  been  healed.  And  then  our  Lord  showed 
He  had  the  kindest  motives  in  stopping,  and  we 
can  bless  Him  for  it,  as  doubtless  she  did ;  for  He 
said,  "Daughter,  be  of  good  comfort.  Thy  faith 
hath  saved  thee ;  go  in  peace." 

!N'ow  why  should  this  woman  have  thought  that 
there  could  be  any  virtue  proceeding  from  our 
Lord's  garments?     Does  not  her  attitude  strike 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  167 

us  as  being  singular?  But  our  modern  attitude 
toward  clothes  would  have  struck  her,  and  every 
one  of  her  contemporaries,  as  quite  inexplicable. 
The  Israelites  were  taught  to  consider  their 
clothes  religiously.  They  wore  them  for  warmth 
or  coolness,  for  protection,  for  modesty,  and,  in  a 
way,  for  religious  recognition.  All  Jews  in  our 
Lord's  time  dressed  pretty  much  alike.  That  a 
man  was  a  Jew  could  be  told  by  his  clothes.  It 
could  even  be  told  if  he  were  a  devout  Jew.  ^N'o 
good  Jew  would  wear  a  garment  made  of  wool  and 
linen  mixed,  because  it  was  contrary  to  the  law. 
And  every  careful  Jew  would  wear  a  fringe  on 
his  garment,  and  on  the  fringe,  whether  run 
through  or  tacked  on,  a  blue  ribbon,  which  you 
will  find  commanded  in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of 
!N'umbers.  This  blue  ribbon  was  to  be  a  constant 
reminder  of  God's  Law.  That  was  what  it  was 
meant  for,  and  so  it  was  understood.  Blue  was 
the  color  of  the  heavens,  and  was  thus  peculiarly 
sacred. 

The  garments  of  the  priesthood  were  so  sacred 
and  so  personal,  that  when  the  High  Priest  died 
his  successor  was  robed  in  the  garments  of  the 
dead  man  as  a  necessary  part  of  his  investiture. 
Elisha  too,  you  will  remember,  attached  great  im- 
portance to  taking  up  the  mantle  of  Elijah  which 
fell  from  him  when  he  was  carried  away,   and 


168  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

smote  the  waters  of  Jordan  with  the  wrapped 
mantle  to  give  him  passage,  as  Elijah  had  showed 
him  how.  Clothes,  then,  among  the  Jews  were 
national,  personal,  and  religious  in  significance. 
The  hem  of  every  man's  robe  being  made  specially 
to  remind  him  of  the  Law,  his  garments  stood  in 
a  sense  for  his  personal  righteouness.  He  would 
be  righteous  if  he  did  the  works  of  the  Law.  The 
most  sacred  thing,  therefore,  about  a  holy  man 
would  be  the  hem  of  his  garment,  and  they  were 
accustomed  to  sing,  in  one  of  the  Psalms,  that  the 
oil  of  Aaron's  anointing  had  "run  down  to  the 
skirts  of  his  garment." 

So  the  poor  woman's  act  curiously  brought  to- 
gether the  two  thoughts:  the  Holiness  of  the  Law 
and  the  Kighteousness  of  Faith.  Christ  is  "the 
Lord  our  Kighteousness,"  and  of  His  fulfilment 
of  the  Law  we  lay  hold. 

It  could  be  wished  that  the  countries  of  the 
world  would  not  be  so  hasty  to  give  up  their  na- 
tional costumes.  So  far  as  we  know  they  are  all 
of  them  beautiful,  interesting,  and  modest.  They 
speak  of  a  certain  character,  of  the  honor  of  the 
race.  They  are  a  protection  against  the  vagaries 
and  tyrannies  of  modern  fashion.  It  seems  to  be 
very  hard  for  some  Christians  to  resist  when  the 
tyrants  of  modern  dress  decree  the  extravagant, 
immodest,  or  absurd. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  169 

The  white  robes  of  the  clergy  are  meant  to 
symbolize  the  Righteousness  of  Christ.  But  the 
fact  that  they  are  worn  further  symbolizes  that 
the  righteousness  of  Christ  can  be  imparted.  What 
the  hem  of  His  garment  was  to  the  poor  woman, 
the  Sacraments  are  to  us.  Though  they  veil  His 
presence,  they  assure  us  of  it,  and  they  convey 
to  us  His  grace,  if  only  we  have  the  touch  of 
faith. 

Christ  as  our  example.  His  deeds  as  patterns 
and  inspiration  for  ours,  carry  us  back  again  to 
the  thought  of  our  garments  as,  in  some  way, 
sacraments  of  ourselves.  We  testify  to  a  man's 
innocence  when  we  say  that  ''he  has  kept  his 
skirts  clean."  That  is,  from  his  consecrated  head 
to  the  hem  of  his  robe  he  has  walked  as  God  would 
have  him,  rather  through  God's  dew  than  man's 
dust.     The  saints,  too,  ''have  washed  their  robes." 

This  is  not  a  reverent  age,  and  is  not  likely 
again  soon  to  pay  too  much  attention  to  the  relics 
of  the  saints.  But  that  we  may  be  impressed  for 
good  by  what  they  have  left  behind,  that  has  been 
in  contact  with  them,  or  the  instrument  of  their 
service,  every  visitor  to  Mount  Vernon  would  prob- 
ably testify.  Washington  has  not  been  canonized 
by  the  Church,  but  he  is  no  doubt  a  national  saint, 
and  rightly  so  regarded.  Everything  that  we  see 
that  was  his  somehow  speaks  of  him,  and  for  him. 


170  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

His  bed,  his  desk,  his  clothes,  all  somehow  affect 
us,  and  affect  us  for  good,  because  they  seem  to 
bring  us  into  contact  with  his  undoubted  goodness, 
his  unselfish  devotion  to  his  family,  his  country, 
and  his  fellow-citizens.  "For  righteousness  is 
immortal." 

The  desire  to  be  remembered  is  natural,  and 
not  to  be  condemned.  Who  is  there,  then,  that 
would  not  wish  so  to  live  that,  when  kind  hands 
come  to  fold  and  lay  aside  for  charity,  or  perhaps 
to  be  briefly  treasured,  the  garments  which  have 
warmed  and  in  some  way  expressed  us  here,  those 
who  do  this  service  may  in  some  way  recall  acts 
and  evidences  of  a  consecrated  life,  of  a  helpful 
walk,  of  an  anointing  which  has  overflowed  upon 
our  relics,  and  has  made  them  reminders  of  God's 
goodness,  in  us,  and  through  us,  to  those  who  have 
been  heirs  with  us  of  the  grace  of  life  ? 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  SERVING 
THE  LORD 

Not  slothful  in  business,  fervent  in  spirit,  serving 
the  Lord. — Romans  12 :  11. 

F  you  should  sit  down  to  read  the 
Epistle  to  the  Komans  straight 
through,  you  would  probably  find 
many  things  hard  to  understand, 
though  there  would  surely  be  passages  here  and 
there  that  would  give  you  a  real  thrill.  But  this 
twelfth  chapter  is  just  as  practical  as  it  can  be. 
It  is  full  of  directions  how  to  live  a  good  life. 
And  if  you  have  been  feeling  pretty  well  satisfied 
with  yourself,  and  then  take  up  this  chapter,  you 
will  be  apt  to  say  to  yourself,  "There  is  more  in 
religion  than  I  had  supposed.  I  haven't  been  so 
good  after  all." 

The  chapter  begins  by  showing  us  that  religion, 
which  we  have  been  taught  is  a  matter  of  faith, 
a  matter  for  the  soul,  is  not  complete  unless  it 


172  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

includes  the  service  of  our  bodies.  They  must 
be  dedicated,  offered  as  living  sacrifices  to  God. 
We  must  serve  Him,  not  only  in  sincerity  of  heart, 
but  with  ^'all  our  strength,"  because  Christ  has 
redeemed  our  bodies  as  well  as  our  souls.  We  must 
not  only  keep  our  bodies  clean,  but  must  make 
them  busy  in  God's  service.  So  much  for  our  duty 
towards  God.  And  as  to  our  duty  towards  our 
neighbor,  we  are  given  the  best  of  reasons  why 
we  should  attend  to  that :  'Sve  are  all  members  one 
of  another,"  all  bound  together  in  one  body.  The 
good  we  do  others  reacts  on  ourselves;  the  evil 
others  may  do  us  hurts  them  even  Avorse  than  it 
does  us. 

Now  of  the  many  precepts  which  this  chapter 
contains  let  us  consider  only  these  three.  They 
could  be  taken  separately ;  but  they  have  been  in- 
cluded in  one  verse  in  our  translation :  "Not  sloth- 
ful in  business,  fervent  in  spirit,  serving  the  Lord." 
They  are  really  closely  connected,  and  come  nat- 
urally in  this  order  from  St.  Paul's  lips.  "Not 
slothful  in  business."  What  is  business?  We 
are  very  apt  to  say  of  our  friends  and  neighbors, 
John  is  a  farmer,  Henry  is  a  blacksmith,  James 
is  a  railroad  man,  and  then,  Alexander  is  a  busi- 
ness man.  But  haven't  these  other  people  any 
business?  Why,  yes,  certainly.  Anything  you 
can  be   busy   about  is  business.     And   what   you 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  173 

ought  to  be  busy  about  is  your  business.  It  isn't 
the  farmer's  business  to  sit  on  the  fence,  nor  the 
blacksmith's  to  spend  the  day  pitching  horseshoes ; 
they  have,  or  ought  to  have,  something  else  to  do. 
^be^  German  Bible  renders  the  first  part  of  the 
text  in  an  illuminating  way.  Translated  back 
into  English  it  might  read,  ^'Do  not  neglect  what 
you  ought  to  do,"  that  is,  fill  up  your  time  right. 
Then  comes  in  the  second  clause,  ^Tervent  in 
spirit."  Fervent  is  a  word  we  connect  with  heat. 
Boiling  water  is  fervent  water.  But  there  is  an- 
other kind  of  boiling  water.  It  is  water  from  a 
boiling  spring,  where  you  can  look  down  and  see 
the  bubbles  rising  up,  and  yet  put  your  hand  into 
the  water  and  feel  that  it  is  delightfully  cool.  This 
is  really  what  the  text  means.  You  can't  keep  up 
your  daily  duties,  and  be  up  to  the  mark  in  them, 
unless  you  have  the  freshness  of  God's  Spirit  in 
your  soul.  St.  Paul  would  not  tell  us  to  keep  in 
good  spirits  all  the  time,  to  have  the  freshness  of 
the  soul  serve  as  a  support  to  us  in  heavy  duties, 
unless  there  was  a  Source  outside  of  ourselves 
where  we  might  refresh  ourselves,  and  go  on  being 
refreshed.  This  Source  is  the  Spirit  of  God,  the 
Gift  which  the  Master  calls  Living  Water.  He 
will  always  unfailingly  give  to  those  who  pray  for 
His  help  and  His  presence.  "If  any  man  thirst, 
let  him  come  unto  Me  and  drink." 


174  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  third  part  of  the 
text:  '^Serving  the  Lord."  We  are  not  working 
merely  for  ourselves;  we  are  not  working  for  any 
sordid  or  mean  master.  We  are  really  working 
for  our  Heavenly  Father.  Just  think  how  hard 
it  must  have  been  to  realize  this  when  St.  Paul 
wrote.  The  Eoman  empire,  of  which  he  was  a 
citizen,  was  full  of  slaves  in  his  day,  over  whom 
their  masters  had  the  power  of  life  and  death. 
They  were  never  paid  for  what  they  did.  They 
were  at  the  mercy  of  tyrannical  whims.  St.  Paul 
succeeded  in  converting  many  of  these  slaves  to 
Christianity,  and  in  bringing  joy  and  contentment 
into  their  lives  by  making  them  feel  that,  in  doing 
their  work  heartily  and  well,  they  were  serving 
and  pleasing  God. 

Nowadays,  too,  there  are  great  complaints  that 
men  do  not  get  wages  enough,  that  rich  men  always 
get  the  lion's  share,  and  so  on.  And  some  people 
seem  to  think  the  remedy  lies  entirely  in  working 
shorter  hours,  going  on  strikes,  or  taking  the  heart 
out  of  what  we  do.  St.  Paul  would  say  rather, 
"Put  your  heart  into  it."  You  owe  it  to  your 
own  soul  to  do  your  best  work,  the  best  you  are 
capable  of;  otherwise  your  powers  and  usefulness 
will  run  down.  But,  more  than  all,  you  owe  it 
to  God.  He  has  put  you  here.  He  is  Lord  of  all. 
He  is  Judge  of  all.     He  knows  what  is  important 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  175 

— He  knows  that  everything  is  important,  but 
character  most  of  all.  And  every  chance  that 
comes  to  you,  or  what  men  call  chance,  is  an  oppor- 
tunity of  serving  God. 

In  old  times  great  knights  and  lords  used  to 
count  it  a  great  honor  to  be  allowed  to  hold  the 
stirrup  of  the  king  when  he  mounted  his  horse, 
something  a  stable-boy  would  do  for  you,  if  you 
needed  such  a  service.  We  would  call  that  in 
itself  menial  service.  But  it  makes  a  difference 
for  whom  you  do  things.  Isn't  it  true  that  all  of 
us  here  would  prefer  to  have  an  opportunity  to  do 
a  service  to  our  President,  or  any  distinguished 
man,  rather  than  just  to  have  an  invitation  to  a 
reception  where  we  could  take  his  hand  ?  If  you 
took  his  hand  it  would  be  with  a  thousand  others, 
and  he  couldn't  possibly  remember  you.  But  if 
you  did  him  a  real  service,  he  could  not  possibly 
forget  it,  and  that's  a  big  difference. 

It  is  always  the  proudest  moment  in  a  boy's 
opening  life  when  he  finds  that  what  he  does  really 
counts,  that  he  is  regarded  as  useful.  But  un- 
fortunately there  is  a  great  deal  of  foolishness 
talked  abroad  among  people  that,  because  this  is 
a  free  country,  where  all  have  equal  political  rights, 
we  ought  not  to  recognize  any  masters,  and  that 
no  one  has  a  right,  or  can  acquire  a  right,  to  have 
us  serve.     But  service  is  a  grand  word.     We  use 


176  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

it  for  this  gathering  here.  We  are  assembled  for 
Divine  Service.  The  test  of  life  is  truly  faith,  but 
we  must  show  our  faith  by  our  service,  for  all  work 
is  in  one  way  or  another  service.  And  we  must 
never  forget  what  Christ  said:  ^'He  that  would 
be  chief  among  you  must  be  the  servant  of  all." 
"1  am  among  you  as  He  that  serveth." 

There  is  nothing  too  hard  or  too  lowly  for  love 
to  do.  There  is  no  labor  that  God's  Spirit  cannot 
lighten,  and  make  it  shine  and  glow.  Christ 
washed  His  disciples'  feet,  and  still  washes  us 
from  the  daily  grime  of  our  sins.  With  what 
approval  He  speaks  of  "the  faithful  and  wise  ser- 
vant," whom,  as  a  reward  for  watchfulness  and 
diligence,  his  lord  will  make  ''ruler  over  all  his 
goods."  And  thus  He  puts  before  us  the  splendid 
ideal  of  service,  usefulness,  the  desire  to  do  all  and 
be  all  that  our  Heavenly  Father  would  have  us  do 
or  be.  And  to  those  who  are  "not  slothful  in  busi- 
ness, fervent  in  spirit,  serving  the  Lord,"  He  offers 
companionship  in  life  and  labor,  the  rewards  of  a 
good  conscience,  the  favor  of  God,  present  support, 
and  final  rest  and  refreshment  in  Him.  "Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant.  Enter  thou  into 
the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 


AN  ADVENT  WATCHWORD 

Put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  make  not 
provision  for  the  flesh  to  fulfil  the  lusts  thereof. — 
Romans  13 :  14. 

HIS  text,  standing  as  the  emphatic  last 
word  of  the  Epistle  for  the  First  Sun- 
day in  Advent,  is  thus,  in  a  way, 
chosen  by  the  Church  as  a  most  im- 
portant and  necessary  watchword  for  the  season. 
The  Church,  like  a  good  mother,  believes  in  rising 
early,  earlier  than  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  is 
still  night  for  the  men  of  the  world  and  of  the 
flesh.  They  are  using  the  cover  of  darkness  for 
ungodly  pleasure.  Some,  too,  are  sleeping  from 
weariness,  and  some  from  excess.  But,  for  those 
who  are  awake,  the  Morning  Star  has  begun  to 
shine,  and  promises  Day. 

The  Church  has  also  light  which  she  can  kindle 
early  against  the  coming  of  the  fuller  glory,  and 
she  arms  herself  against  the  "works  of  darkness" 
and  the  enemies  of  the  truth  by  putting  on  "the 


178  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

armor  of  light."  Her  children  here  are  still  in 
the  flesh,  and  subject  to  the  strong  appeal  of  the 
flesh.  The  flesh,  if  left  to  itself,  would  lead  us 
to  live  a  completely  animal  life.  It  endeavors  to 
make  us  regard  it  as  our  natural  master,  calling 
always  for  food,  sleep,  and  pleasure,  and  saying, 
with  regard  to  the  evident  shortness  of  the  time 
for  these  things:  ^'Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to- 
morrow we  die." 

Man  is  the  best  of  the  animal  creation,  because 
he  is  the  least  animal.  He  seems,  however,  capable 
of  worse  debasement  than  any  other  of  the  animal 
creatures.  All  other  creatures  eat  to  live,  and 
mainly  to  live,  and  gluttony  is  everywhere  the  way 
to  an  early  death.  So  excess  writes  in  clear  char- 
acters its  sentence  on  the  man  or  beast  who  yields 
to  it,  destroying  beauty,  destroying  efficiency,  de- 
stroying the  power  of  attack  and  defense.  In 
spite  of  this  clear  sentence  of  I^ature  man  yields 
to  drunkenness,  because  he  would  "fulfil  the  lust 
of  the  flesh." 

He  would  let  his  passions  do  their  worst  with 
him,  and  will  even  plan  to  have  them  do  so.  The 
extraordinary  gift  of  foresight,  prevision  linked 
with  provision,  given  him  for  an  entirely  different 
purpose,  is  made  to  serve  the  lust  of  the  flesh. 
The  Romans  have  left  a  record  of  elaborately 
planned  debauchery,  which  we  hoped  would  never 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  179 

be  repeated ;  but  evil  man  still  ingeniously  devises 
wickedness,  even  in  a  Christian  land.  These 
things  continue  on  from  generation  to  generation, 
because  the  actual  constitution  of  human  nature 
does  not  change. 

It  was  true  in  St.  Paul's  day  that  *^the  flesh 
lusteth  against  the  spirit,  and  the  spirit  against 
the  flesh."  It  is  equally  true  now.  And  yet  the 
Christian  is  not  taught  to  hate  his  flesh,  or  to  treat 
it  unnaturally.  He  is  not  taught  to  deny  its 
reasonable  desires.  He  may  not  even  neglect  it; 
though  mistaken  religionists  have  so  taught  him 
to  do.  Since  work  has  become  his  law,  and  the 
body  is  the  instrument  of  his  labors,  he  must  spend 
much  care  upon  it,  must  feed  it,  cleanse  it,  rest  it, 
use  it  and  not  abuse  it. 

Even  in  the  discipline  of  the  body  he  must  use 
the  light  of  wisdom.  He  may  fast,  but  he  must 
not  starve;  he  must  exercise,  but  not  overtax  his 
powers.  There  are  lusts  of  the  mind  as  well  as 
lusts  of  the  flesh.  In  general,  when  we  use  the 
word  "lust"  in  our  translation  we  mean,  not  de- 
sires in  general,  lawful  and  normal,  but  over- 
driven, imperious  desires,  that  would  leave  a  man 
enslaved  to  the  lower  part  of  himself.  And  so, 
too,  we  have  practically  agreed  not  to  speak  of 
the  "body  that  shall  be"  in  the  world  to  come  as 
"flesh." 


180  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

It  is  true  that  the  creed  early  expressed  the 
resurrection  as  ''the  resurrection  of  the  flesh."  But 
it  is  clear  that  the  word  is  used  in  the  early  creed 
in  a  different  sense  from  that  which  it  bears  in 
St.  Paul's  saying,  "Flesh  and  blood  shall  not  in- 
herit the  kingdom  of  God,  neither  doth  corruption 
inherit  incorruption."  The  body  here  is  the  sub- 
ject of  progressive  corruption,  of  which  inoffensive 
illustrations  could  be  the  falling  of  the  hair,  the 
flaking  of  the  skin.  Flesh  is  heir  to  these  things, 
or  rather,  ''flesh  and  blood." 

The  mention  of  the  blood  recalls  the  process  by 
which  our  bodily  life  is  sustained  here,  and,  though 
we  believe  firmly  in  a  resurrection  body,  we  cannot 
think  of  it  as  sustained  by  a  process  like  eating  or 
drinking,  or  by  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  We 
live  here  of  our  Father's  bounty,  indirectly  of 
Him:  in  the  life  to  come  we  are  to  be  in  imme- 
diate touch  with  His  life.  But  the  coming  life  is 
not  to  be  thought  of  as  maimed  or  unreal,  by  being 
spiritualized.  We  are  to  be  not  so  much  "un- 
clothed," as  "clothed  upon." 

So  the  Christian  man,  because  he  is  urged  not 
to  make  provision  for  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  is  not 
thereby  advised  against  a  true  foresight  for  his 
body,  a  true  care  for  it  here.  By  putting  his  body 
into  training  and  discipline,  under  the  complete 
control  and  command  of  the  spirit,  he  is  really 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  181 

making  provision  for  the  body  against  the  life  to 
come.  Lust  is  fleeting.  But  the  real  man  is  ca- 
pable of  the  loftiest  desires.  Lust,  ^Vhen  it  is 
fulfilled,"  gives  no  satisfaction ;  torture  begins  soon 
with  the  awakening.  But  man's  high  desires  were 
made  for  real  satisfaction.  ^^My  flesh  and  my 
heart  f aileth :  but  God  is  the  strength  of  my  heart, 
and  my  portion  forever." 

Our  text  stands  as  the  turning  point  in  the 
life  of  St.  Augustine,  the  greatest  of  the  Latin 
Fathers.  Caught  by  the  theories  of  the  Mani- 
chees,  as  well  as  attracted  by  the  teachings  of 
Christ,  he  had  been  trying  to  make  possible  both 
the  service  of  Christ  in  his  spirit,  and  the  service 
of  his  passions  in  the  flesh.  He  had  a  long  and  bit- 
ter struggle.  He  couldn't  see  how  it  was  going  to 
be  possible  to  live  without  yielding  to  his  passions. 
He  was  sitting  in  the  garden  reading,  and  the  book 
had  fallen  to  the  ground,  and  he  heard  near-by  the 
voice  of  a  child,  ^^take  up  and  read."  He  did  so, 
and  his  eye  fell  first  on  this  text  we  are  following 
to-day,  and  it  changed  his  whole  life,  being  fol- 
lowed by  his  baptism,  and  ordination. 

But  if  he  had  been  powerless  before  to  shake 
off  his  chains,  how  could  a  single  sentence  have 
changed  him,  especially  as  it  seems  to  be  just  a 
repetition  of  a  command  to  do  the  impossible? 
The  answer  is  in  the  words,  "Put  ye  on  the  Lord 


182  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

Jesus  Christ.''  We  have  spoken  before  of  the 
^^armor  of  light."  St.  Paul  elsewhere  expands 
this  idea  into  the  specifications  of  the  girdle  of 
truth,  the  breastplate  of  righteousness,  the  shield 
of  faith,  the  sandals  of  the  gospel  of  peace,  the 
helmet  of  salvation,  and  the  sword  of  the  Spirit, 
with  prayer,  which  is  the  continual  touch  with 
the  Captain  and  Leader.  This  tells  us  to  do  things 
which  mean  personal  union  with  Christ.  It  puts 
a  new  centre  into  life.  It  gives  us  new  life  and 
new  powers,  because  it  gives  us  a  new  heart,  and 
"out  of  the  heart  are  the  issues  of  life." 

To  many  of  us,  and  perhaps  to  most  of  us 
sometimes  or  in  some  degree,  Christianity  comes 
as  a  collection  of  details,  not  always  satisfactorily 
related  or  explained  to  ourselves.  It  brings  too 
often  a  sense  of  limits,  rather  than  a  sense  of 
power.  It  falls  back  into  the  repetition  of  pre- 
cepts, "touch  not,  taste  not,  handle  not,"  always 
with  a  mild  feeling  of  resentment  on  our  part,  be- 
cause we  are  somehow  held  back,  we  do  not  see 
exactly  why,  from  doing  as  others  do.  This  view 
will  not  hold  us  back  from  mischief  very  long. 

The  morals  of  our  community  suffer  terribly 
from  this  view  of  our  religion,  because  Christian- 
ity is  really  meant  to  be  a  related  whole,  all  of  a 
piece,  lived  out  from  an  inward  principle,  just  as 
consistent  as  the  development  of  a  rose.     We  rec- 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  183 

ognize  the  Christ  life  as  consistent.  It  fails  in  no 
particular.  And  we  are  usually  satisfied  to  take 
the  title  of  a  celebrated  book,  The  Imitation  of 
Christ,  as  a  short  definition  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. But  the  exact  imitation  of  Christ  is  not 
possible  to  any  one  not  placed  in  the  exact  circum- 
stances of  Christ.  So  imitation  is  not  an  exact 
statement  of  what  we  are  called  upon  to  under- 
take. 

The  real  need  is  Union  with  Christ,  and  this 
is  set  before  us  in  many  l^ew  Testament  phrases : 
being  "baptized  into  Christ,''  "abiding  in  Christ," 
"putting  on  Christ,''  "rooted  and  grounded  in 
Him,"  "till  Christ  be  formed  in  you,"  and  many 
others.  So  intense  is  St.  Paul's  sentiment  of  the 
reality  of  this  union — though  nothing  he  says 
points  to  any  loss  of  individuality  or  responsibility 
— that  he  regards  our  work  as  done  by  Christ,  and 
even  our  sufferings  as  His.  Only  our  failures 
are  not  His,  that  is,  our  real  failures.  For  some 
things  are  not  failures  at  all  that  seem  so  to  the 
world.  Our  real  failures  always  come  by  relying 
too  fully  on  ourselves,  or  from  regarding  our 
interests  as  in  some  way  different  from  His.  They 
would  be  impossible  if  our  abiding  in  Him  was 
complete. 

This  solves  our  difficulty.  We  feel  helpless 
and  go  to  the  Scriptures,  and  are  told  to  do  more 


184  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

than  ever.  The  further  we  read,  for  awhile,  the 
more  impossible  it  all  seems.  But  by  and  by  it 
appears  that,  along  with  the  duty,  we  are  offered 
the  power  of  Christ  to  do  it.  We  are  asked  to  a 
complete  surrender,  which,  after  all,  is  easier  than 
partial  surrender,  and  then  life  becomes  "Christ 
in  us.'' 

It  may  help  us  here  if  we  consider  what  Christ 
perfectly  was  in  two  of  His  chief  relations.  He 
Avas  perfectly  the  Son.  Putting  on  Christ,  there- 
fore, is  putting  on  Sonship.  The  Christian  life  is 
so  perfectly  to  act  our  sonship  that  the  will  of  the 
Father,  the  unity  of  the  household,  the  brother- 
hood of  us  all,  are  not  for  a  single  moment  for- 
gotten. It  is  not  a  relationship  which  can  be 
taken  up  and  laid  aside ;  if  we  try  to  do  that,  life 
becomes  merely  acting,  play  acting.  Sonship  is 
a  matter  of  Nature.  Justifying  faith,  then,  is  an 
incorporating  faith,  as  well  as  an  appropriating 
faith.  It  accepts  character  as  well  as  justifica- 
tion. It  would  refuse  justification  without  char- 
acter. If  Christ  be  really  ours  and  we  are  His, 
His  merits  are  really  ours,  and  He  somehow  really 
bears  our  sins. 

He  was  perfectly  the  lover  of  Men ;  of  all  men, 
absolutely  devoted  to  their  salvation.  This  made 
His  travail  and  pain,  His  passion  and  death,  not 
light — for  they  could  not  bo  that — but  joyfully 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  185 

accepted  as  a  means  of  fulfilling  ^love's  redeeming 
work."  To  such,  then,  as  put  on  Christ,  the 
whole  of  life  is  Divine  Service.  There  is  no 
time  for  sin,  and  no  will  to  sin,  where  all  of  our 
time  and  will  is  already  devoted.  Consecrated 
thought,  consecrated  will,  consecrated  work,  con- 
secrated pain,  consecrated  rest  and  waiting — these 
all  characterize  the  men  who  have  put  on  Christ, 
and  so,  having  made  the  new  beginning,  have 
received  the  'New  Creation. 

"Christ  be  with  me,  Christ  within  me, 

Christ  behind  me,  Christ  before  me, 
Christ  beside  me,  Christ  to  win  me, 

Christ  to  comfort  and  restore  me, 
Christ  beneath  me,  Christ  above  me, 

Christ  in  quiet,  Christ  in  danger, 
Christ  in  hearts  of  all  that  love  me, 

Christ  in  mouth  of  friend  and  stranger." 

"I  bind  unto  myself  the  Name,  the  strong  Name  of  the 
Trinity ; 
By  invocation  of  the   Same,  the   Three  in   One,  the 

One  in  Three. 
Of  Whom  all  Nature  hath  Creation,  Eternal  Father, 

Spirit,  Word: 
Praise  to  the  Lord  of  my  Salvation,  Salvation  is  of 
Christ  the  Lord.     Amen." 

(St.  Patrick's  Breastplate.) 

Mrs.  Alexander. 


m 


BROTHERLY  LOVE 

Let   brotherly  love  continue. — Hebrews   13 : 1. 

HAT  conception  have  v^e  generally  of 
brotherly  love?  Do  we  not  usually 
describe  it  to  ourselves  in  terms  of 
friendship  ?  As  if  fellowship,  mu- 
tual good  understanding  and  help,  common  rights, 
a  natural  drawing  together  of  hearts  through  kin- 
dred tastes  were  sufficient  illustrations?  This 
does  describe  friendship,  and  no  doubt  brothers 
ought  to  be  friends.  But  brotherly  love  demands 
a  better  analysis.  It  differs  from  friendship  be- 
cause it  has  a  different  origin.  Two  men  may 
easily  become  friends  who  differ  in  blood,  in  edu- 
cation, in  talent,  and  adaptability,  because,  with- 
out explanation  needed  or  always  possible,  love 
has  grown  up  between  them.  Such  love  may  be 
born  of  admiration,  gratitude,  or  pity.  The  love, 
however,  begins  and  effects  the  friendship.  But 
we  are  brothers  by  nature  long  before  it  is  reason- 
able to  expect  real  friendly  love. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  187 

Brothers  have,  first,  the  same  father,  the  same 
nature,  the  same  inheritance,  the  same  family 
honor.  They  share  naturally  in  everything.  Ex- 
cept in  the  case  of  twin  births,  one  is  older  and 
the  other  younger ;  one  is  usually  weaker,  and  the 
other  stronger.  What  love  there  is  between  them, 
prior  to  the  awakening  of  mutual  friendship,  is 
a  sort  of  mutual  inheritance  in  the  regard  of  oth- 
ers: they  are  wrapped  up,  as  it  were,  in  the  same 
blanket  of  fatherly  and  motherly  love.  Personal 
affection  may  afterward  arise  between  them  for 
exactly  the  same  class  of  reasons  as  create  other 
friendships.  But  brotherly  love  as  couched  in 
terms  of  duty — and  it  is  always  so  expressed  in  the 
Scriptures — seems  to  be  equally  a  duty  when  it 
is  no  pleasure.  So  here  is  where  the  breakdown 
generally  comes. 

When  we  lose  admiration  or  respect,  when  we 
have  to  blame  a  natural  brother,  when  he  has  be- 
come so  burdensome  that  we  have  lost  patience 
with  him,  then  brotherly  love  is  apt  to  disappear, 
and  show  that  it  wasn't  really  genuine.  For  broth- 
erly love,  being  part  of  our  inheritance  as  sons, 
ought  in  the  elder  son  to  resemble  fatherly  love,  in 
the  younger  love  of  a  son. 

Fatherly  love  is  characterized  by  self-sacrifice 
and  devotion  to  the  young  and  helpless,  the  unde- 
veloped and  undisciplined.     The  son  repays  some- 


188  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

thing  by  and  by,  but  never  to  the  person  bestowing 
most.  He  repays  the  debt  due  his  father  gen- 
erally in  caring  for  his  father's  grandchildren. 
But  love  of  the  right  sort  pays  for  itself.  Its 
blessedness  is  not  in  the  return  from  the  child,  but 
from  something  divine  in  the  act  of  loving  and 
giving.  And,  in  perfectly  ideal  fatherhood  and 
motherhood,  even  a  bad  son  is  beloved,  while  he 
may  be  mourned;  the  prodigal,  before  he  thinks 
about  returning;  even  the  idiot  and  helpless,  in- 
capable of  response.  ^^We  love  Him  because  He 
first  loved  us.''  He  first  loved  us,  and  His  fatherly 
love  was  independent  of  our  desert. 

So  brotherly  love  is  not  particularly  virtuous 
when  it  is  only  the  affection  between  congenial 
brothers,  but  only  when  it  is  like  the  love  of  Christ, 
who  came  "to  seek  and  save  the  lost."  All  this 
bears  most  importantly  upon  our  relation  to  other 
classes,  other  races,  and  other  churches ;  upon  the 
view  we  take  of  our  responsibilities  to  and  for 
criminals,  delinquents,  and  those  usually  counted 
outlawed,  or  outcast.  The  common  Fatherhood, 
the  common  redemption,  ought  to  be  enough.  We 
draw  the  lines  of  help  and  duty  entirely  too  close 
to  our  own  known  race,  to  the  circle  of  our  own 
intimates.  "Mercy  to  thousands"  is  God's  motto, 
and  should  be  ours. 

According  to  the  teaching  of  the  Gospel,  as 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  189 

we  read  the  parable  of  the  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus, 
we  realize  that  Lazarus  was  the  brother  of  Dives, 
though  unknown  and  unrecognized.  Dives  recog- 
nized but  five.  He  could  not  see  brotherhood  in 
one  more,  even  though  that  one  more  was  laid  at 
his  gate.  This  unrecognized  brother  or  sister  is 
the  condemnation  of  our  modern  society,  our  mod- 
ern churches,  as  well  as  of  the  type  of  Dives. 

There  are,  of  course,  undeniable  temptations 
to  us  in  the  common  life  of  the  household.  Jacob 
showed  favoritism,  and  was  in  a  sense  as  much  to 
blame  for  Joseph's  misfortunes,  human  nature 
being  what  it  is,  as  some  of  the  unloving  brothers. 
Joseph  himself  was  not  superior  to  giving  Benja- 
min as  his  guest  five  times  what  he  gave  anyone 
else.  And  Joseph  had  been  extremely  conceited, 
and  must  have  been  very  hard  to  live  with,  if  we 
read  Genesis  right.  Brotherly  love  is,  therefore, 
expressed  in  terms  of  duty,  because  it  is  often  very 
hard. 

And  there  are  going  to  be  just  as  great  diffi- 
culties in  doing  our  duties  to  the  brotherhood  of 
the  Church,  to  that  of  the  local  community,  to  the 
larger  one  of  the  nation,  and  the  supremely  great 
brotherhood  of  humanity.  There  are  always 
troublesome  members  in  every  congregation.  This 
makes  less  discomfort  for  others  if  the  congrega- 
tion is  pretty  large,  but  usually  because  we  can 


190  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

then  neglect  the  disagreeable  brother.  It  isn't 
because  our  duty  is  any  easier,  but  because  we 
neglect  it,  that  we  seem  to  have  an  easier  time. 

The  one  necessary  factor  is  the  Cross.  The 
Cross  marks  the  death  of  the  Elder  Brother  for 
the  whole  brotherhood.  It  is  the  very  reverse  of 
the  behavior  of  that  other  elder  brother  in  the 
parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son.  It  marks  the  real 
crowning  of  character.  For  no  crown  was  ever 
nobler  than  the  Crown  of  Thorns.  And  when  we 
see  the  crown  of  gray  hairs  which  we  are  taught 
to  regard  as  so  honorable,  it  is  by  no  means  always 
the  fruit  of  age,  but  sometimes  of  loving  care  and 
trouble,  and  of  sorrow  which,  nevertheless,  has  her 
blessing. 

Let  us  learn  that  the  true  way  of  family  life 
is  the  way  of  forgiveness,  of  long  suffering,  of 
continuous  welcome.  That  a  family  outcast  should 
remain  outcast  after  repentance  shows  that  there 
is  somebody  else  who  ought  to  repent ;  it  should  be 
unthinkable  in  pure  Christianity.  Where  our  own 
have  shamed  us,  we  ought  to  think  of  the  Shame 
of  the  Cross.  We  ought  to  remember  how  much 
our  Saviour  has  had  to  bear  from  us,  how  much 
our  own  parents  and  brothers  have  had  to  put  up 
with  during  the  long  course  of  our  own  upbring- 
ing. "Let  brotherly  love  continue,"  that  is,  let  it 
stand  the  test  of  time,  the  test  of  sacrifice,  the  test 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  191 

of  temptation.  Let  it  rise  superior  to  false  pride, 
let  it  stand  as  a  refuge  for  the  returning  sinner, 
that  the  joy  of  heaven  may  be  ours  in  welcoming 
the  wanderers  home,  in  seeing  them  restored  and 
happy  in  their  Father's  house. 


MERCY,  THE  TRUE  TEST  OF 
RELIGION 

Which  now  of  these  three,  thinkest  thou,  was  neigh- 
bor unto  him  that  fell  among  thieves? 

And  he  said.  He  that  showed  mercy  unto  him.  Then 
said  Jesus  unto  him.  Go,  and  do  thou  likewise. — St. 
Luke  10 :  36,  37. 

HILE  the  learned  class  among  the 
Jews  was  almost  a  unit  in  its  opposi- 
tion to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  there 
were  honorable  exceptions;  and  now 
and  then  a  man  who  seemed,  even  while  in  oppo- 
sition, to  have  a  deeper  conception  of  truth  than 
his  fellows.  This  lawyer,  whose  questions  to 
Christ  gave  occasion  for  the  Parable  of  the  Good 
Samaritan,  and  thereby  did  us  all  a  wonderful 
service,  was  able  to  see  what  was  the  very  core 
and  centre  of  the  Old  Law;  this,  from  Deuter- 
onomy 6:5:  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with 


I 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  193 

all  thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind,"  adding 
from  Leviticus  19 :  18,  ^^and  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self." It  was  no  small  thing  to  have  thus  an- 
swered. But  the  lawyer  shows  how  much  easier 
it  is  to  state  a  principle  than  to  apply  it,  and  also 
the  tendency  we  all  have  to  limit  our  duty  to  a 
very  narrow  field,  when  he  further  questions, 
^'Who  is  my  neighbor?" 

Then  our  Lord  tells  the  story  of  the  Good 
Samaritan,  who  had  rescued  the  wounded  man, 
who  was  not  his  friend,  nor  even  of  his  nation, 
and  with  whose  misfortune  he  had  nothing  to  do ; 
while  the  priest  and  the  Levite,  who  were  devoted, 
at  least  nominally,  to  the  service  of  religion,  took 
no  responsibility  for  the  suffering  they  plainly 
saw,  and  hastened  away  on  their  own  affairs.  The 
Samaritan  had  been  brought  up  in  an  inherited 
hostility  to  all  Jews,  but  he  had  a  tender  heart. 
He  had  not  been  taught  in  an  orthodox  creed;  he 
did  not  frequent  the  true  temple,  but  he  was 
moved  with  compassion.  And  being  so  moved,  he 
let  his  love  for  humanity  and  his  tender  pity  for 
distress  turn  him  aside  from  his  own  intended 
business,  delay  him,  make  him  the  servant  of  a 
stranger,  and  cause  him  to  provide  shelter  and 
healing  for  him  in  advance.  In  place  of  trying 
to  limit  what  he  would  be  willing  to  do  for  mercy's 
sake,  he  says  to  the  host  at  the  Inn,  "Take  care  of 


194  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

him,  and  whatever  thou  spendest  more,  when  I 
come  again  I  will  repay  thee.''  This  might 
possibly  have  been  a  great  sum,  and  worldly  pru- 
dence would  have  dictated  a  limit;  but  mercy  and 
compassion  do  not  know  any  limits. 

Then  our  Lord  asks  the  lawyer,  "which  now 
of  these  three  thinkest  thou  was  neighbor"  to  the 
wounded  and  plundered  man?  And  he  has  to 
answer,  whether  he  would  or  not,  "He  that  showed 
mercy  on  him."  This  is  the  world-long  test.  This 
is  the  principle  by  which  we  are  to  guide  our- 
selves, for  the  Master  tells  us  all  in  the  person  of 
the  enquiring  lawyer,  "Go  and  do  thou  likewise." 

Let  us  observe  that  nothing  whatever  is  said 
in  the  sacred  narrative  against  the  Priest  and  the 
Levite,  except  the  simple  record  of  their  lost  op- 
portunity for  mercy.  We  are  not  told  that  the 
Priest  was  a  man  of  corrupt  life,  it  is  not  said  that 
he  was  a  particularly  selfish  person.  He  may  have 
been  entirely  respectable  and  law-abiding,  and  far 
from  having  any  sympathy  with  robbers,  such  as 
infested  the  Jericho  road.  He  may  have  feared, 
perhaps,  that,  lingering  too  long  there,  he  himself 
might  be  just  one  more  victim  of  lawlessness. 
There  is  no  suggestion  that  he  saw  his  duty  differ- 
ent from  his  interest,  or  that  his  conscience 
troubled  him,  or  that  the  Levite  was  regretful  over 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  195 

things  undone,  wlien  they  went  on  their  ways 
without  stopping  for  a  rescue. 

On  the  contrary,  I  think  our  Lord  means  that 
the  Levite  and  the  Priest  were  fairly  typical  of 
what  the  people  of  better  station  would  be  likely 
to  do  under  the  circumstances. 

And,  of  course,  the  purpose  of  relating  the 
history  now,  as  part  of  a  divine  message,  is  not 
chiefly  to  entertain  or  interest  us,  but  to  have  each 
one  ask  himself  the  question.  How  would  my  pre- 
judices and  principles  have  led  me  to  act  ?  What 
fellowship  have  I  in  spirit  with  this  Samaritan? 
Do  I  not  more  easily  find  excuses  for  things  left 
undone,  than  time  and  means  for  unselfishness  1 

And  is  it  not  worth  touching  in  passing,  that 
in  the  Wonderful  Picture  of  the  Last  Judgment 
given  in  St.  Matthew  25th,  those  who  are  there 
described  as  the  fearfully  reprobate  are  all  guilty 
of  simple  neglect  ?  So  in  the  parable  of  the  Kich 
man  and  Lazarus;  Dives  was  in  hell  and  in  tor- 
ment, because  of  opportunities  for  mercy  rejected 
or  overlooked;  and  these  last,  these  overlooked 
things,  cannot  be  overlooked  habitually,  if  our 
eyes  and  heart  are  alive  to  the  call  of  mercy  and 
true  brotherly  love. 

What  the  Priest  saw  was  something  like  this: 
bad  policy,  danger,  perhaps  imprudence  in  the 
victim,  what  we  call  "a  deplorable  occurrence." 


196  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

But  it  was  not  his  fault,  not  his  business:  time 
was  pressing,  delay  was  inconvenient,  and  help, 
probably,  would  do  no  good.  And  this  is  the  way 
of  the  world. 

We  Churchmen  are  in  the  habit  of  saying 
solemnly  before  God  when  we  come  to  Church, 
"We  have  left  undone  those  things  which  we  ought 
to  have  done.''  But  what  are  those  things  ?  Do 
we  express  them  in  this  general  way  because  it  is 
enough  to  recognize  the  fact  ?  Why,  certainly  not. 
We  speak  out  our  neglects  in  these  general  terms, 
because  we  wish  to  bear  witness  that  neglected 
duty  is  a  constant  sin,  and  that  we  all  neglect  our 
duty  more  or  less.  We  could  not  stop  to  put  in  all 
the  particulars  in  a  common  prayer,  but  we  ought 
each  to  find  out,  and  for  himself  to  deplore  his 
own  particular  neglects.  And  if  we  have  them  to 
deplore  once,  and  then  again  have  the  same  story 
of  the  same  neglect  to  tell  our  Maker,  where  has 
true  repentance  been  ?  Or,  if  we  are  so  self- 
satisfied  as  to  suppose  we  have  not  neglected  duty, 
must  it  not  be  that  we  do  not  read  duty  with  the 
largeness  with  which  it  is  written  in  the  Gospel, 
and  that  we  are  formally  religious  just  for  our- 
selves? 

Go  out  into  any  street  of  any  American  City, 
and  a  short  promenade  will  be  sure  to  introduce 
you    to    countless    things    which    want    mending. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  197 

Leave  out  of  consideration  the  average  reformer's 
way  of  remedying  any  evil,  which  is  to  go  out  and 
break  something,  or  have  some  one  arrested;  and 
take  up  the  matter  in  the  Good  Samaritan's  way. 
Here  is  suffering.  Whose  fault  is  it?  This  was 
not  any  question  which  we  can  read  in  the  Good 
Samaritan's  mind.  Perhaps  he  knew  without  ask- 
ing. The  question  might  also  have  come  up.  Why 
had  not  someone  of  the  sufferer's  own  people 
helped  him?  But  the  Samaritan  wasted  no  time 
with  that.  His  question  was.  How  can  I  help  him, 
and  get  him  to  a  place  of  safety?  He  does  not 
stop  over  the  fact  that  the  victim's  sufferings  were 
not  caused  by  his  discoverer,  that  other  people  were 
more  responsible,  that  other  people  of  more  means 
might  soon  come  along,  but  simply  puts  his  own 
personal  services  at  this  unknown's  disposal.  He 
becomes  the  incarnation  of  helpfulness.  Mercy 
absorbs  him.  His  regrets  were  not  that  business 
was  delayed,  convenience  interfered  with,  that 
another  was  riding  while  he  had  to  walk,  that 
good  money  was  being  thrown  away — his  regret 
was  only  over  the  calamity,  the  pain  of  another. 
He  would  have  felt  much  worse  had  he  been  unable 
to  help. 

Two  pence  seems  a  small  gift  to  a  landlord  to 
care  for  a  wounded  stranger.  But  when  a  day's 
wages  were  a  penny,  a  penny  would  pay  for  more 


198  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

than  two  days'  care.  It  would  keep  a  family  two 
days,  and  a  single  person  many  more.  So  it  stands 
for  great  liberality. 

This  church  building  was  erected  and  opened  to 
the  honor  of  Almighty  God.  It  is  occupied  by  a 
very  ancient  communion,  claiming  an  Apostolic 
commission,  and  believing  itself  called  upon  to  con- 
tinue what  Jesus  "began  to  do  and  teach,  before 
He  was  taken  up"  into  Heaven,  and  what  His 
disciples  were  to  continue  to  do  and  teach  till  the 
end  of  the  age. 

^Nevertheless,  it  has  come  somewhat  late  into 
many  parts  of  our  country.  What  excuse  has  it 
for  coming  at  all?  Has  it  a  more  beautiful  and 
aesthetic  service?  We  may  question  whether  the 
services  of  those  interesting  people,  commonly 
called  the  Irvingites,  are  not  even  more  aesthetic- 
ally beautiful.  Does  it  offer  a  more  moderate  and 
rational  view  of  religion?  Possibly  this  idea  is 
due  to  some  misconception  of  what  is  really  the 
freedom  of  the  Church,  and  in  the  Church.  No. 
The  Church  comes  with  a  special  authority,  and 
with  special  claims.  But  people  are  not  all  equal 
to  an  unbiased  consideration  of  these  claims. 
They  would  be  far  more  easily  won  to  us,  if  they 
saw  us  come  as  the  Good  Samaritan,  to  do  good, 
to  heal  morals,   protect  virtue,   always   do   those 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  199 

useful,  disagreeable  things  which  lie  before  our 
very  gates,  but  which  we  elect  not  to  see. 

Until  compassion  has  a  chief  place  in  our 
hearts;  until  mercy  stirs  to  action;  until  we  feel 
we  can't  afford  to  do  a  selfish  thing;  until  we 
realize  that  a  man's  character  is  all  he  can  take 
before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ,  and  that  the 
final  condemnation  of  a  Christlike  man  is  im- 
possible ;  until  these  things  move  us  actively,  there 
is  much  to  be  hoped  and  prayed  for  in  the  Church 
and  world. 

And  who  are  we?  Are  we  indeed  an  outcast 
race?  Have  we  not  rather  promises,  blessings, 
riches  of  hand  and  heart  ?  Is  not  God  our  Father  ? 
Are  we  not  called  to  be  like  Him  ? 

Awake  us.  Almighty  God!  Awake  us.  Lord 
Christ,  to  the  call  to  a  deep  and  characteristic 
likeness  to  Thee.  Make  us  to  thank  God  every  day 
that  Thou  hast  said,  "Blessed  are  the  Merciful; 
for  they  shall  obtain  Mercy."    Amen. 


THE  TRAVAIL  OF  THE  SOUL 

He  shall  see  of  the  travail  of  His  soul  and  shall  he 
satisfied.  By  His  knowledge  shall  My  Righteous  Ser- 
vant justify  many;  for  He  shall  bear  their  iniquities. 
—Isaiah  53 :  11. 

ANY  of  you,  watching  the  approach 
of  what  threatened  to  be  a  gloomy 
evening,  growing  dark  from  low 
western  clouds  before  it  ought  to, 
have  been  delighted  to  see  the  sudden  breaking 
forth  of  the  sun,  just  before  it  went  below  the 
horizon,  and  the  day  faded  away  with  a  smile.  It 
reminds  one  of  Christ's  entry  into  Jerusalem,  just 
before  the  night  of  His  career  shut  down  upon  an 
apparent  failure. 

We  have  to  say  apparent  failure  for  more 
reasons  than  one.  For,  even  if  death  had  really 
finished  Christ's  career  as  a  Preacher  of  Right- 
eousness, one  can  believe  that,  as  soon  as  clear 
mindedness  had  come  to  make  men  realize  by 
comparison  with  all  other  teachers  the  grandeur 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  201 

of  His  precepts,  His  influence  would  have  begun 
to  grow  again.  There  is  a  saying,  *^You  could  not 
have  built  a  Living  Church  on  a  Dead  Christ," 
but  men  would  have  built  something,  for  what 
Christ  gave  them  was  the  best  they  had  ever  re- 
ceived. Many  people  now  admire  Christ,  quote 
Him,  in  some  way  try  to  imitate  Him,  who  yet  do 
not  believe  as  we  do  in  the  Resurrection  from  the 
dead.  Their  soul,  their  conscience,  cannot  say 
Him  nay.  Though  in  their  belief  He  is  still 
numbered  with  the  dead,  they  count  Him  worthy 
of  the  highest  immortality  they  think  possible. 
And  though  dead,  as  they  mournfully  feel,  yet 
still  He  speaketh  with  the  noblest  and  most  in- 
spiring voice  of  history. 

And  this  introduces  us  to  a  fact  that  may  at 
first  seem  strange,  but  manifold  experience 
verifies,  that  human  failures  often  seem  to  involve 
more  moral  success,  and  afford  more  inspiration 
to  posterity,  than  the  so-called  successful  lives. 

Too  many  successful  lives  could  be  epitomized 
or  judged  in  the  words  of  Christ,  ^'Verily  I  say 
unto  you,  they  have  their  reward."  Such  lives 
come  to  a  full  stop  here.  The  inspiration  of 
failure  goes  on  forever.  The  American  Revolu- 
tion gives  two  shining  instances;  the  death  of 
ISTathan  Hale,  and  the  glow  of  patriotism  that 
comes  to  us  when  we  read  of  the  sufferings  at  the 


202  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

Valley  Forge.  Hale's  enterprise  was  absolutely 
unsuccessful.  He  was  hanged  as  a  spy.  But  Hale 
was  a  man  and  a  patriot.  ^'I  only  regret  that  I 
have  but  one  life  to  give  for  my  country"  has  been 
the  inspiration  of  many  devoted  deeds. 

Saratoga  was  glorious,  Yorktown  and  Appo- 
mattox; but  the  real  glory  of  Appomattox  was  in 
the  magnanimity  of  Grant,  and  the  self-forgetful- 
ness  of  Lee.  Lee's  greatness  as  a  citizen  gains 
greatly  from  his  behavior  in  defeat.  Let  an  old 
soldier  move  along  a  line  of  captured  trophies  as 
he  may  do,  and  they  stir  his  pride;  but  let  him 
stop  before  a  monument  like  that  at  West  Point 
to  "Dade  and  his  Command" — that  little  army  that 
left  no  unwounded  survivor — and  he  seizes  at  once 
upon  their  behavior  then  as  exemplary,  as  what  a 
soldier  ought  to  do.  And  what  more  precious  me- 
mories has  the  E^avy  than  Lawrence's,  "Don't  give 
up  the  ship,"  or  the  thought  of  the  Cumberland's 
flag  still  flying  over  her  sunken  hull,  or  Craven's 
courteous  words,  "After  you,  Sir!"  There  is  no 
real  success  if  a  man  fails  to  be  a  man,  and  no 
failure  if  he  does. 

Christ  had  failed  by  His  life  to  accomplish 
the  salvation  of  His  people.  He  had  not  failed  in 
what  He  came  to  be.  No  one  had  convicted  Him, 
or  could  convict  Him,  of  sin.  He  had  never  failed 
any  man  or  woman  who  had  come  to  Him  for 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  203 

truth  or  comfort.  No  limit  can  be  assigned  to  the 
outflow  of  His  benevolence.  It  was  only  that  "in 
the  sight  of  the  unwise  He  seemed  to  die,  and  His 
departure  was  taken  for  misery."  He  was  at  rest, 
and  consecrated  the  grave  for  every  man  by  His 
rest. 

When  the  woman  who  was  a  sinner  wept  out 
her  penitence  and  love  over  the  Master's  feet; 
when  the  lepers  were  cleansed,  and  the  dead  raised 
up,  and  the  poor  heard  the  Gospel ;  when  children 
ran  to  His  arms,  and  the  grasping  publican  began 
to  restore  fourfold;  when  sightless  eyes  opened 
first  to  behold  their  Saviour — a  type  we  may  well 
believe  of  our  own  resurrection — then  Christ 
already  had  a  partial  return  for  the  travail  of  His 
soul.  He  certainly  put  some  of  the  joy  of  His 
earthly  labors  into  words  when  He  said,  "I  thank 
Thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  that 
Thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and 
prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes."  The 
fruitage  that  remains  to  be  manifested  is  in  "the 
multitude  that  no  man  can  number."  "Thanks 
be  to  God  who  giveth  us  the  victory,"  through 
Him  who  was  willing  to  fail  in  human  eyes. 

We  would  all  like  to  succeed.  How  many 
do  succeed  in  the  plans  they  make  for  life  ?  How 
many  lawyers  are  successful  in  their  profession? 
How  many  physicians   make   a  name  beyond   a 


204  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

most  limited  circle  ?  How  many  business  men  go 
through  life  without  a  failure;  without  the  need 
of  a  fresh  start,  and  a  good  deal  of  accommoda- 
tion? Exact  figures  are  not  what  we  need.  We 
only  need  to  know  that  there  is  always  plenty  in 
life  to  explain  discouragement,  even  if  not  to 
justify  it.  Discouragement  is  the  worst  fruit  of 
failure,  sometimes  its  prophecy.  To  keep  sweet 
and  hopeful,  in  spite  of  all,  is  the  great  thing. 

Hence,  if  anyone  is  planning  to  become  a 
merchant,  we  cannot  promise  him  success.  All  we 
can  promise  is,  that  virtue  will  be  a  great  comfort, 
if  he  be  honest.  We  cannot  promise  the  doctor 
fame,  but  we  do  know  that  he  will  receive  the 
blessing  of  the  poor,  if  he  be  diligent  and  kind. 
We  cannot  promise  a  bride  that  her  husband  and 
children  will  make  her  happy,  but  we  can  promise 
her  that  she  can  make  herself  into  a  blessing,  and 
a  refuge,  and  a  holy  name,  if  she  be  worthy. 

It  is  the  Christian  life  that  has  the  promises. 
It  is  the  only  career  that  carries  along  with  it  a 
cure  for  daily  mistakes,  weakness,  and  even  sin. 
"These  things  write  I  unto  you  that  ye  sin  not. 
But  if  any  man  sin,  we  have  an  Advocate  with 
the  Father,  Jesus  Christ  the  Righteous,  and  He 
is  the  Propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours 
only,  but  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world" — the 
whole  world! 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  205 

In  the  Christian  life  we  have  sometimes  set 
before  us  the  figure  of  competition :  "Kjiow  ye  not 
that  they  which  run  in  a  race  run  all,  but  one 
receiveth  the  prized'  But  this  is  a  metaphor 
which  can  not  be  driven  too  far.  In  the  business 
worldj  another  man's  success  may  mean  our  failure. 
But  not  so  in  the  service  of  Christ.  The  more  we 
help  others  to  succeed,  the  greater  our  own  success. 
A  selfish  effort,  even  after  character,  defeats 
character.  And  how  much  it  adds  to  our  hope  that 
something  may  be  accomplished  by  us  when  we 
see  with  what  faulty  materials  God  has  elsewhere 
won  His  successes. 

We  ai:e  not  intended  to  win  all  the  fruits  of 
character  here,  but  God  intends  us  to  see  enough 
to  confirm  our  souls,  to  give  us  that  experience 
that  ^Vorketh  hope." 

This  is  the  true  sphere  of  labor,  the  labor  or 
travail  of  the  soul.  In  too  many  of  us  the  soul 
can  hardly  be  said  to  be  awake  at  all,  much  less  to 
be  at  work.  And  one  great  use  of  our  failures 
in  this  life  is  to  call  our  attention  to  the  real  op- 
portunities we  have  in  this  higher  sphere.  Our 
material  failures  are  the  more  accented  when  they 
happen  now,  because  other  men  do  so  much.  Life 
is  so  spectacular;  we  talk  in  millions,  nothing 
surprises  us.  But  tremendous  as  are  the  successes 
.and  the  failures  of  modern  life,  the  flatness  of 


206  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

earth's  greatest  successes  was  never  more  plain. 
If  it  be  happiness  a  man  seeks  and  he  does  not 
get  it,  what  difference  does  it  make  what  else  he 
gets?  Even  his  gold  is  "fool's  gold,"  if  he  be  a 
fool.     It  is  the  soul  that  counts. 

Holj  Week  brings  before  us  a  group  of  friends 
whose  chief  mutual  concerns  were  with  the  soul. 
We  have  friendships,  but  have  they  gone  as  far 
as  that?  What  have  we  done  with  our  friends? 
Are  their  souls  anything  to  us,  or  have  we  ever 
done  anything  for  them?  We  have  met  them, 
walked  and  talked  with  them,  exchanged  tolerant 
views,  shared  kindred  tastes,  been  mutually  help- 
ful, perhaps,  in  study  and  business.  All  this  is 
very  much.  How  sweet  many  friendships  are, 
and  yet  how  much  sweeter  they  might  be  if  they 
went  on  to  the  matters  of  the  soul!  There  may 
come  a  time  when  a  real  friend  faces  death,  per- 
haps disgrace,  perhaps  is  threatened  through  temp- 
tation and  is,  alas,  weak;  then  the  heart  of  his 
friend  begins  to  cry,  "I  am  distressed  for  thee,  my 
brother."  "I  would  help,  but  there  is  no  help  in 
me." 

Man  goes  to  his  trouble  chiefly  alone,  unless 
God  be  with  him.  When  the  example  of  our  cor- 
rect morality,  our  cool  temperance,  cannot  hold 
up  a  friend,  our  spirit,  if  it  would  effect  anything, 
must  cry  mightily  to  God.     So  can  men  be  led  by 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  207 

their  friendships  to  the  feet  of  Him  who  alone 
can  save  their  friends.  How  Christ  labored  for 
His  friends !  How  He  taught  them,  led  them,  had 
patience  with  them,  showed  them  their  errors, 
served  them!  He,  their  Master,  bore  their  mis- 
understandings and  forsakings.  He  never  forsook 
them ;  He  lived  for  them ;  He  died  for  them.  He 
taught  us  that  a  friend  is  worth  dying  for,  that 
this  is  the  test.  And  through  His  greatest  sacrifice 
He  won  them  as  He  had  ever  won  them  before. 
Thej  were  really  won;  He  saw  of  "the  travail  of 
His  soul." 

Let  us  all  realize  that  a  man's  work  ought  to 
call  on  all  of  his  powers.  If  a  man  has  the  gifts 
to  be  a  great  artist,  he  ought  to  be  one.  If  we 
have  souls,  we  ought  to  work  with  them.  Work 
with  the  soul,  and  for  the  soul,  is  the  highest  work. 
It  was  the  way  Christ  worked  for  us.  It  is  the 
way  we  should  work  with  Him  and  for  Him,  and 
He  will  turn  our  travail  into  joy. 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 

There  is  a  lad  here  that  hath  five  barley  loaves  and 
two  small  fishes;  hut  what  are  they  among  so  many? — 
St.  John  6 :  9. 

KEVIEW  of  current  events,  with  a 
view  to  selecting  those  things  which 
we  may  regard  as  most  important 
among  our  causes  for  gratitude,  has 
its  disadvantages  as  well  as  its  advantages.  It 
overlooks  the  possibly  different  standpoints  of 
different  people  toward  the  same  happenings. 
Political  events  may  leave  one  man  sore,  and  make 
another  happy  just  before  Thanksgiving  Day.  A 
Free  trader  and  a  Protectionist  can  never  worship 
comfortably  together  after  a  tariff  war  unless  they 
have  in  common  other  reasons  for  gratitude  to 
God.  And  then,  the  Scriptures  make  it  clear  that 
a  Christian  is  expected  to  be  happy,  and  to  give 
thanks  anyhow,  no  matter  what  has  happened. 
For  our  real  happiness  is  grounded  in  eternal 
verities,  and  nothing  can  shake  them. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  209 

Would  it  not,  therefore,  be  a  good  idea  to  go 
back  to  the  simplest  idea  of  prosperity — ^physical 
prosperity,  we  can  find,  and  analyze  that — and 
see  if  both  rich  and  poor  cannot  discover  a  common 
ground  on  which  to  join  in  an  act  of  thanksgiving  ? 

As  a  general  rule,  we  here  do  not  have  to  take 
v^ery  anxious  thought  about  provision  for  the  day. 
While  we  recognize  with  a  great  deal  of  concern 
(hat  our  dollar  is  continually  losing  purchasing 
power,  there  are  plenty  of  people  to  remind  us 
that,  even  in  the  days  when  it  would  purchase  a 
great  deal  more  of  certain  commodities  than  it 
now  does,  there  were  some  of  them  that  we  now 
buy  pretty  cheaply  that  formerly,  and  not  so  long 
ago,  could  not  be  bought  at  all  by  most  people. 
They  were  only  to  be  had  occasionally,  and  ex- 
ceptionally. Life  is,  in  many  ways,  on  a  more 
liberal  scale  than  formerly. 

But  it  is  easy  to  conceive  of  occasions  now 
when  a  whole  community  might  be  very  glad  of 
very  simple  supplies.  We  are  so  used  to  rapid 
transit,  to  bring  to  us  all  we  need  on  short  notice, 
that  a  complete  stoppage  of  transportation  for  a 
very  little  while  might  induce  us  all  to  put  our- 
selves on  an  allowance. 

The  ^ve  thousand  people  who  went  out  to  seek 
our  Lord  in  the  desert  place  belonging  to  Bethsaida 
undoubtedly   included   persons   of  various   condi- 


210  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

tions  of  life.  The  majority  were,  of  course,  poor, 
and  most  of  the  poor  do  not  worry  half  as  much 
about  what  is  likely  to  happen,  or  not  to  happen, 
as  those  whom  we  call  more  fortunate.  But  there 
must  have  been  a  good  many  there  who  had  not 
been  accustomed  to  limit  their  fare  entirely  by 
necessity,  to  eat  as  little  as  they  had.  So,  finding 
five  thousand  people  without  food  all  at  once  threw 
into  relief  the  question,  "what  are  the  necessaries 
of  life?"  How  much,  or  how  little,  could  we  do 
with? 

Our  Lord  raises  that  question  at  once  when  He 
says  to  Philip,  "Whence  shall  we  buy  bread  that 
these  may  eat  ?''  He  did  not  propose  anything  but 
the  satisfaction  of  a  real  want.  If  that  were  met, 
the  green  grass  and  the  fresh  air  ought  to  count 
something  for  the  luxuries  otherwise  missed. 
Philip  calculates  for  the  most  modest  provision; 
a  little  for  everyone,  he  says,  would  cost  two 
hundred  pence,  a  very  large  sum  in  those  days, 
and  among  poor  people,  and  evidently  stated  by 
Philip  as  something  quite  beyond  the  possibilities. 
It  would  cost  as  much  as  that,  and  therefore  it 
couldn't  be  done. 

Then  comes  Andrew's  introduction  of  the  lad 
with  the  five  loaves  of  the  coarse  bread  of  the 
country,  the  food  of  the  poor,  and  the  two  little 
fishes  of  the  lake.     And  the  lad  was  prepared  to 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  211 

give  them  up.  We  may  infer  that  the  Lord's 
company  at  least  offered  to  buy  them,  for  that  was 
the  original  question,  ''Whence  shall  we  buy?" 
At  any  rate,  they  would  not  have  given  away  what 
did  not  belong  to  them,  though  that  is  not  un- 
known now,  and  masquerades  as  liberality. 

i^ow  here  is  the  very  simplest  fare  that  you 
and  I  can  conceive,  and  a  multitude  getting  that 
when  they  were  very  glad  to  get  it.  Common  as 
it  was,  it  was  enough.  Now  what  was  involved 
in  getting  it  at  all?  The  miraculous  part  of  the 
story  may  be  set  aside  for  just  a  moment.  What 
concerns  us  is  the  thanksgiving  part  of  it.  When 
these  men  got  bread  enough,  from  whom  did  they 
get  it?  Who  cooperated?  They  got  it  from  the 
hands  of  the  disciples,  who  were  acting  as  unpaid 
assistants  of  our  Lord's  munificence.  The  dis- 
ciples got  it  from  a  boy,  who  had  brought  it  there, 
if  we  know  anything  about  conditions  then,  in  one 
of  the  common  country  baskets.  There  were 
baskets  there,  anyhow. 

The  boy  got  the  bread  from  his  mother,  who 
ground  the  grain  in  her  little  hand  mill,  mixed 
the  dough  and  baked  it.  She  got  the  grain  from 
her  husband  or  some  farmer,  and  to  get  the  grain 
to  her,  there  had  been  ploughing,  harrowing,  seed- 
ing, reaping,  thrashing,  winnowing,  carrying,  and 
storing.     Somebody  had  to  make  the  plough  and 


212  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

the  harrow,  and  somebody  cut  the  wood  and 
smelted  the  metal  which  entered  into  the  makeup 
of  the  tools.  Somebody,  a  smith,  had  to  make  the 
reaping  hook.  Somebody  had  to  breed  the  ox  that 
trod  out  the  grain  on  the  threshing  floor.  Some- 
one had  to  gather  the  rushes  that  made  the  boy's 
basket,  and  then  the  basket  had  to  be  made.  Then, 
in  the  fishing  there  had  been  necessary  the  fisher- 
man, the  boatbuilder,  the  nailsmith,  the  net  maker, 
the  flax  spinner,  the  farmer  again,  and  the  one 
who  cured  the  fish.  It  was  the  simplest  fare,  but 
not  so  simple,  after  all;  for  all  these  hands  were 
necessary,   and  everyone  added  something  to  the 

gift. 

And,  more  than  this,  the  seed  that  was  sown 
had  been  through  the  same  process,  year  after 
year,  since  the  first  time  that  barley  was  dis- 
covered to  be  good  for  food.  It  was  not  the  feed- 
ing of  ^ve  thousand  that  was  so  much  in  evidence, 
as  the  feeding  of  a  hundred  successive  generations, 
four  thousand  years  of  people,  and  the  still  having 
enough  at  the  end  of  four  thousand  years  to  plant 
the  fields  for  more.  'Now  with  all  this,  how  much 
of  the  work  was  done  from  necessity,  and  how 
much  from  love  ?  Depend  upon  it,  a  very  large 
portion  from  love.  Wages  are  not  paid  for  half 
that  is  done  in  this  world  that  adds  liberally  to 
our  pleasure  and  support. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  213 

;N'ow  turn  from  the  common  things  of  our 
Lord's  time  to  the  common  things  of  to-day.  The 
veriest  commonplaces  of  the  table  would  be  bread, 
butter,  sugar,  salt,  potatoes,  tea,  coffee.  Your 
breakfast  this  morning — and  breakfasts  are  getting 
a  little  simpler — was  perhaps  porridge,  cream, 
coffee,  bacon,  toast,  and  marmalade.  !N'o  trouble 
to  get  a  breakfast  like  that!  What,  no  trouble? 
1^0  trouble  to  you,  perhaps,  but  somebody  had  to 
take  trouble !  The  marmalade  is  marked  Dundee, 
and  had  to  come  from  there  in  a  steel  ship,  built 
on  the  Clyde  from  American  steel.  They  do  not 
grow  oranges  in  Scotland,  so  those  oranges  found 
their  way  there  from  Spain  in  another  ship.  The 
toast  was  made  from  Minnesota  flour,  the  bacon 
cured,  wherever  gro^vn,  in  Kansas  City  or  Chicago, 
drawn  to  the  stock  yards  over  miles  and  miles  of 
railroad.  The  coffee  came  from  Southern  Brazil, 
the  sugar  from  Honolulu.  If  less  than  a  thousand 
different  hands  have  been  busy  getting  you  your 
breakfast,  it  cannot  be  enough  less  to  make  tho 
lesson  of  our  mutual  dependence  less  important. 

Most  of  this  work,  mind  you,  was  done  with 
good  will;  some  of  it  paid  and  a  lot  unpaid;  and 
for  all  that  wasn't  paid  for,  we  owe,  at  least, 
thanks. 

!N'ow  most  of  us  fail  to  realize  that  this  is 
the  way  God  normally  works.     It  is  easier,  some- 


214  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

how,  to  believe  a  thing  comes  from  God  if  the 
wind  blows  it  into  our  laps,  than  it  is,  if  some 
man  walks  up  and  hands  it  to  us.  But  that  is 
quite  incorrect  as  a  mental  attitude.  The  man  is 
certainly  more  like  God  than  the  wind  is,  even 
granting  that  the  winds  are  mysterious.  God  Avaits 
on  us,  and  serves  us,  surely,  sometimes  by  the 
winds  and  rains,  and  the  disciples  owed  those  five 
barley  loaves  to  the  rains  no  less  than  the  seed ;  but 
He  also  waits  on  us  by  these  thousands  of  hands. 
Your  mother,  when  she  nursed  you,  was  doing 
God's  work.  Some  people  do  not  believe  in  special 
Providences,  and  some  people  do  not  believe  in 
Providence  unless  it  is  special.  But  God's  Provi- 
dence is  working  all  the  time.  The  five  thousand 
saw  a  wonderful  miracle,  but  they  saw  only  a 
very  small  part  of  it. 

Now,  just  as  all  these  many  generations  before 
Christ's  time  had  been  busy  with  getting  that 
barley  bread  ready  for  that  miracle,  and  all  the 
time  it  was  God  that  was  at  work ;  so  our  thanks, 
when  once  we  are  roused  to  offer  them  to  God, 
do  not  amount  to  much  unless  we  begin  to  offer 
them  to  Him  through  man,  who  has  been  serving 
us.  Here  are  all  these  working  men.  The  most 
that  we  see  in  the  labor  market  is  the  struggle  of 
the  laborer  to  get  better  wage.  But,  whatever  he 
gets,  he  does  not  seem  to  get  any  gratitude. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  215 

Here  is  our  table  served  with  fish  from  the 
Grand  Banks.  It  would  do  every  one  good  who 
ever  eats  a  piece  of  cod-fish  to  read  Kipling's 
"Captains  Courageous."  All  these  fish  taste  of 
danger  and  hardships,  and  many  of  them  of 
heroism. 

Here  is  a  community  really  supported  by  an 
invisible  industry,  it  might  be  by  the  mines.  It 
would  then  make  no  difference  how  a  few  of  us  got 
our  incomes;  in  roundabout  ways  it  all  goes  back 
to  the  mines.  That  would  be  true  of  Pittsburgh, 
true  of  Birmingham,  just  as  Omaha  is  all  sup- 
ported by  farms;  and  the  miner,  again,  could  not 
work  without  the  farmer.  Are  you  grateful  to  the 
miner  for  his  share  in  the  food  you  eat,  and  the 
clothes  you  wear?  Do  you  ever  think  about  him, 
do  you  care  anything  about  him?  Does  he  not 
do  infinitely  more  for  you  than  you  do  for  him  ? 
Would  you  take  his  job  and  be  contented  and  smil- 
ing about  it  ?  All  my  bread  is  salted  by  his  danger. 
There  is  blood  on  some  of  the  coal  I  burn.  And 
if  we  do  not  thank  the  miner,  how  are  we  to  get 
our  thanks  back  to  God?  He  does  not  accept 
them  unless  they  come  through  the  proper  chan- 
nels. You  can't  throw  them  up  into  the  air,  and 
have  them  stay  there.  The  right  way  to  send 
thanks  to  God  for  His  support  of  such  a  com- 


216  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

munity,  is  to  send  them  down  a  mine,  or  thank 
His  servant,  the  farmer. 

Indeed,  the  lesson  of  Thanksgiving  Day  may 
be  briefly  expressed  in  this  general  conviction,  that, 
whenever  you  meet  anyone  whom  you  know  to  be 
active  in  his  duty,  you  can  make  up  your  mind 
without  much  fear  of  being  mistaken  that  you 
owe  that  man  something,  that  he  is,  in  someway, 
ministering  to  you,  and  that  any  man  who  is  half 
a  man  is  glad  of  it.  And  so,  be  glad  yourself  of 
every  opportunity  to  share  the  blessing  which 
comes  when  you  willingly  lend  your  hands  to 
Christ  to  help  along  the  miracle,  the  daily,  per- 
petual miracle  of  the  feeding  of  the  world. 

It  is  only  when  we  refuse  to  pass  along  our 
blessings  that  men  have  to  go  away  without  food. 
Oh,  may  we  show  forth  our  thankfulness,  ^^not  only 
with  our  lips,  but  in  our  lives." 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  SEVENTY 

Many  prophets  and  kings  have  desired  to  see  those 
things  which  ye  see,  and  have  not  seen  them;  and  to 
hear  those  things  which  ye  hear,  and  have  not  heard 
them.— St.  Luke  10 :  24. 

HIS  forms  the  conclusion  of  our  Lord's 
comment  on  the  success  of  the  Mis- 
sion of  the  Seventy.  First  vt^ent  forth 
the  twelve,  and  they  v^ere  successful 
beyond  their  hopes  and  expectations.  Then  fol- 
lowed the  seventy,  our  Lord's  second  choice  of  His 
disciples.  They  knew  what  had  happened  before, 
and  were,  no  doubt,  encouraged  to  look  for  some 
fruits  from  their  own  ministry,  even  though  they 
were  the  second  sending;  but  they  also  were 
astonished  at  the  power  they  could  exercise 
through  the  ISTame  of  Jesus.  "Even  the  devils," 
they  reported,  "are  subject  unto  us  through  Thy 
'Name.'' 

What  was  rejoicing  to  them  was  also  rejoicing 
to  our  Lord.     "He  rejoiced  in  spirit."     He  said, 


218  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

^'I  thank  Thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  Heaven  and 
earth,  that  Thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the 
wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto 
babes:  even  so.  Father;  for  so  it  seemed  good  in 
Thy  sight.'' 

The  text  is  part  of  a  private  communication 
to  the  disciples.  He  does  not  say  to  every  one, 
but  simply  to  them  the  words,  ^'Blessed  are  the 
eyes  that  see  the  things  that  ye  see."  He  will  not 
bless  them  publicly,  and  thus  attract  attention  to 
them.  He  does  not  hesitate  to  remind  them  that 
they  are  babes.  This  that  they  have  just  done  has 
come  from  Him  because  all  things  have  been  given 
to  Him  from  the  Father,  and  because  the  Son 
willed  to  reveal  Himself  to  His  simple-hearted  ser- 
vants and  friends.  It  did  not  mean  that  they  could 
think  themselves  wise  or  prudent,  or  even  great, 
in  themselves.  What  they  had  done  had  been 
given  them.  We  might  infer  that  the  gift  might 
be  lost  if  they  lost  their  simplicity. 

Let  us  go  back  a  little,  and  look  over  the 
prophets  and  kings. 

With  all  the  greatness  of  the  prophets,  they 
leave  on  our  minds  a  general  impression  of  having 
fallen  on  evil  days.  They  were  sent  "because  the 
days  were  evil."  It  was  not  good  that  sin  should 
pass  unrebuked,  though  in  high  places.  And  we 
hear  very  little  from  the  prophets  when  the  kings 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  219 


were  good,  except  when  they  rise  to  rebuke  the 
sins  or  follies  of  the  good;  for  the  best  of  men 
need  correction.  The  triumph  of  the  prophets  was 
not  in  the  success  of  their  predictions,  which  they 
generally  did  not  live  to  see;  but  it  was  the  tri- 
umph of  sustaining  faith.  They  did  not  see  the 
power  of  righteousness  visibly  bring  in  the  rule  of 
healing  and  deliverance  from  evil.  Even  when 
they  were  wonder-workers,  the  miracles  seemed 
hardly  to  postpone  the  final  judgment  on  a  dis- 
obedient people. 

The  kings  were  good  and  bad.  The  bad  kings 
naturally  are  not  alluded  to  by  this  text.  It  is 
only  the  good  kings  who  had  the  desire  to  see  such 
things  as  our  Lord's  simple  followers  afterward 
wrought.  But  there  were  a  number  of  good  kings ; 
and  even  some  of  the  bad  kings  had  good  points, 
and,  in  some  way,  advanced  the  purpose  of  God. 
The  good  kings  of  Judah  (there  were  no  good 
kings  of  Israel)  were  Asa,  Jehoshaphat,  Joash, 
Uzziah,  Jotham,  Hezekiah,  and  Josiah.  They  had 
their  faults,  and  those  faults  are  not  concealed 
from  us.  Some  of  these  faults  were  the  common 
infirmities  of  other  men  who  can  be  called  good, 
and  others  were  due  to  a  yielding  to  temptations 
that  came  with  power. 

But  no  one  can  doubt  that  the  sacred  historians 
have  done  right  to  call  these  kings  good,  as  human 


220  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

goodness  goes,  in  both  their  relations  to  God  and 
to  men.  They  looked  up  to  the  King  of  kings. 
They  had  a  will  to  do  good  to  their  people.  But 
often  they  appear  to  have  been  powerless  to  ac- 
complish much,  though  they  were  supposed  to  have 
all  the  power  that  absolute  monarchy  could  give 
them.  They  began  reformations,  they  broke  down 
idols,  but  it  all  came  to  nothing;  because  the 
people  whom  they  wished  to  serve,  elevate  and 
convert,  had  no  real  heart  for  holiness. 

A  good  king  cannot  save  a  bad  people.  The 
progress  of  righteousness,  of  the  true  kingdom  of 
God,  must  affect  the  unseen  mass  of  the  people  to 
amount  to  anything  real  and  lasting.  This  is  one 
reason  why  the  true  kingdom  of  God  is  so  quiet 
and  secret  in  its  working.  It  is  so  much  easier 
to  see  badness  than  goodness,  even  though  badness 
tries  to  hide  itself.  And  this,  it  seems,  should 
encourage  us  about  the  present,  which  always 
seems  hopeless  to  so  many. 

The  success  of  the  mission  of  the  seventy  seems 
to  have  had  other  noticeable  attendants. 

We  know  that  the  ruling  classes  generally  in 
our  Lord's  day  were  opposed  to  the  recognition  of 
His  mission.  He  had  enemies  among  the  Pha- 
risees, Sadducees,  and  Herodians:  most  of  these 
were  His  enemies.  But  there  must  have  been  a 
vast  multitude  of  plain  people  who  were  either 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  221 

His  friends  through  all  that  happened,  or  were 
only  thrown  into  temporary  and  apparent  hostility 
by  excitement,  panic  or  delusion.  What  visible 
success  He  had  was  helped  by  the  many  distressed 
people,  who  were  neither  fit  to  help  in  the  saving 
work  which  Christ  began,  nor  to  do  anything  to 
save  themselves;  but  were,  at  least,  willing  to  be 
saved.  And  it  is  simply  astonishing  to  us  now, 
who  have  so  little  experience  of  willing  help  from 
people  who  have  long  known  the  Gospel  and  its 
privileges,  that  our  Lord  could  have  put  so  many 
simple  workmen  into  the  field,  and  have  sent  them 
out  so  soon.  Evidently  we  have  much  to  learn  in 
principle,  and  very  much  to  add  to  our  practice. 

We  are  trying  to  show  the  world  that  the  real 
Kingdom  of  God  is  possible  in  a  democracy.  We 
ought  to  realize  that  it  can  only  be  possible  in  a 
Christianized  democracy.  There  is  much  explana- 
tion in  the  apparent  failure  of  democracy,  its 
graft  scandals,  its  special  privilege  scandals,  its 
judicial  scandals,  for  the  way  in  which  men  dis- 
cuss the  possibilities  under  a  benevolent  aristoc- 
racy, or  a  good  king.  There  is  much  explanation 
also,  for  the  attraction  which  some  find  in  a 
Socialistic  programme.  There  is  very  little  room 
for  a  salvation  such  as  Christ  proposed,  and  still 
proposes,  in  either  of  these  programmes.  Social- 
ism proposes  to  save  itself.     But  it  seems  to  have 


222  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

all  the  exclusive  spirit  of  the  narrowest  Judaism, 
and  much  of  its  self-righteousness.  It  has  no 
room  for  Christ,  and  does  not  really  propose  self- 
sacrifice.  That  many  of  its  votaries  mean  well, 
cannot  be  gainsaid.  That  their  alienation  from 
the  Church  has  apparent  justification,  or  at  least 
easy  explanation,  is  also  clear.     And  why  ? 

It  seems  to  be  because  we  haven't  those  who 
answer  to  the  seventy.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted 
that  our  Lord  made  secret  use  through  the  Holy 
Spirit,  which  has  always  been  at  work  in  the 
world,  of  all  the  possible  material  for  remedying 
the  evil  He  would  overthrow.  He  cast  out  devils ; 
the  twelve  cast  out  devils;  the  seventy  did  the 
same;  and  there  were  others  who  did  so  who  had 
no  visible  call,  but  whom  our  Master  did  not  dis- 
dain to  commend,  and  to  bless  with  visible  success. 

The  trouble  with  the  Church,  with  democracy, 
just  now  is  that  so  few  realize  the  call  to  help.  It 
is  all  left  for  specialists  to  do.  But  Christianity 
without  helpfulness  is  unthinkable;  and,  more 
than  that,  a  fruitless  Christianity  is  going  to  lose 
its  vision.  "Blessed  are  the  eyes  that  see  the 
things  that  ye  see,"  is  a  text  which  really  has  to 
be  explained  to  most  hearers  nowadays,  whereas 
it  probably  explained  itself  to  all  those  who  heard 
it  in  the  infancy,  the  active  infancy,  of  the  gospel 
dispensation. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  223 

The  uncertainty  about  several  of  the  deeper 
mysteries  of  our  religion,  which  is  so  characteristic 
of  our  age  (so  that  we  hardly  know  how  to  answer 
the  question,  "What  think  ye  of  Christ?"),  has  a 
close  connection  with  our  inactivity  in  the  work 
of  the  Gospel.  We  do  not  get  close  enough  to  ask 
our  questions  of  the  Only  One  who  really  knows. 
We  have  no  real  religious  experience.  Our  lives 
are  correct,  but  little  different  from  those  of  decent 
pagans  and  philosophers.  We  ask  our  wisdom, 
and  it  has  nothing  to  tell  us ;  we  consult  our  pru- 
dence, and  it  falls  short.  God  has  hid  these  things 
from  such,  and  has  revealed  them  unto  babes.  The 
answer  sought  from  the  new  power  we  are  learn- 
ing through  science  to  exercise  over  nature,  is  not 
going  to  comfort  us.     "We  must  be  bom  again." 

And  thus  it  seems  that  the  strongest  use  that 
can  be  made  of  our  text  for  to-day's  need  is  to 
encourage  every  man,  every  plain  man,  every 
young  man,  to  enlist  first  and  foremost  in  the 
fight  against  both  the  evil  within  him,  and  the  evil 
outside  of  him.  We  must  realize  that  we  might 
easily  have  been  the  members  of  the  seventy,  and 
may  still  do  a  work  not  second  to  theirs.  The 
poorest  of  us  has  received  power,  and  may  receive 
more  power.  Faith  and  power  both  grow  with 
the  use.  The  things  we  see  that  ought  to  be  done 
are  the  things  we  are  called  to  do.     The  whole 


224  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

body  must  work ;  and  '^je  are  the  Body  of  Christ, 
and  members  in  particular/' 

J^ow  if  we  were  to  stop  at  just  this  point  we 
might  have  stirred  someone  to  a  desire  to  help, 
but  have  failed  to  accomplish  much  because  those 
we  have  exhorted  do  not  know  how  to  help.  But, 
if  that  desire  be  burning  enough,  we  will  be  sure  to 
find  a  way  to  be  of  use.  The  fight  against  the 
demon  of  intemperance  has  many  places  where 
the  common  man  may  take  hold,  working  on  his 
next  friend.  We  do  not  have  to  go  far  to  find 
a  field,  nor  must  we  forget  the  E^ame  of  Jesus. 
Our  very  helplessness  and  ignorance,  if  recognized 
and  confessed,  will  help  us,  for  they  send  us  out 
of  ourselves  and  back  to  Him. 

Oh,  may  God  stir  us  up  to  help  the  tempted 
and  the  defeated  with  a  whole  devotion ;  and  may 
He  grant  us  to  see,  even  in  this  day,  some  of  the 
joy  and  blessing  of  those  who  can  say :  "Even  the 
devils  are  subject  to  us  through  Thy  IN'ame." 


THE  BLOSSOMING  OF  THE 
WILDERNESS 

The  desert  shall  rejoice  and  hlossom  as  the  rose, — 
Isaiah  35 : 1. 

HAT  a  wonderful  flower  the  rose  is! 
It  has  attracted  the  admiration  of 
flower  lovers  from  the  very  first.  As 
soon  as  they  talk  about  anything,  they 
talk  about  roses  and  lilies.  Some  florists  practi- 
cally devote  their  lives  to  roses,  endeavoring  to 
develop  new  varieties  which  shall  be  even  more 
beautiful  than  any  seen  before.  And  so  now  we 
have  hundreds  of  varieties  in  nature,  and  the 
florist  has  developed  hundreds  of  others.  These 
are  standard  roses,  climbing  roses,  dwarf  roses, 
white,  blush,  pink,  red,  and  roses  nearly  black. 
There  are  changeable  roses.  They  vary  in  fra- 
grance from  none,  or  almost  none,  to  what  is  a 
revelation  of  sweetness. 

Some  of  the  most  beautiful  varieties  seem  to 
bring  all  their  power  and  life  to  a  focus  in  a  few 


226  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

wondrous  blooms,  and  others,  like  what  we  call  the 
common  roses,  absolutely  run  riot  over  the  fences 
and  along  the  garden  paths,  all  beauty  and  profu- 
sion in  waves  of  pink  or  white.  The  bushes  live 
a  long  time;  some  are  very,  very  old.  It  takes 
the  buds  a  long  time  to  open.  They  are  like 
human  beings  in  this.  And  of  all  the  flowers  they 
leave  the  longest  memories. 

There  is  fragrance  in  the  world  to-day  of 
roses  that  blushed  and  bloomed  a  hundred  years 
ago.  But  they  have  thorns,  and  some  of  the  most 
beautiful  have  the  sharpest  thorns.  N^or  is  it 
possible  to  say  that  what  we  call  the  improved 
varieties  are  so  absolutely  more  beautiful  than  the 
wilder  ones.  The  wild  rose  is  not  so  very  beauti- 
ful, if  you  look  at  it  with  a  gardener's  eye.  But 
where  it  belongs  it  exactly  fits,  it  is  just  what  we 
went  there  to  see,  and  a  finely  developed  garden 
rose  would  look  out  of  place  in  the  wilderness. 

There  are  these  two  flowers  that  have  always 
been  thought  of  as  sacred  to  our  Lord:  roses  and 
lilies.  "I  am  the  Kose  of  Sharon,  and  the  Lily 
of  the  Valley,''  has  always  been  interpreted  of 
Christ.     But  the  Bose  is  especially  His  flower. 

"Fruit  of  the  mystic  Rose, 

True  Branch  of  Jesse's  Stem, 
The  Root  whence  mercy  ever  flows — 
The  Babe  of  Bethlehem." 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  227 

The  lilj  on  the  other  hand  always  appears  in 
representations  of  the  Blessed  Virgin.  The  angel 
of  the  Annunciation  is  always  holding  it  in  his 
hand.    But  it  is  sacred  to  Christ  as  well. 

Come  back,  though,  to  the  rose,  the  wild  rose 
as  we  shall  have  to  take  it  here,  because  only  the 
wild  rose  grows  in  the  desert.  How  does  the  wild 
rose  make  us  think  of  Christ?  Look  first  at  its 
home. 

It  is  a  little  hard  for  many  of  our  people  to 
picture  to  themselves  what  is  meant  in  the  scrip- 
ture as  a  desert.  But,  if  they  have  ever  travelled 
over  our  great  West,  they  have  seen  practically 
everything  that  could  describe  or  illustrate  it. 
There  would  be  three  general  sorts  of  deserts. 
There  would  be  deserts  like  Sahara,  the  bottom 
of  ancient  ocean,  nothing  but  a  wide  waste  of 
drifting  sand.  There  was  little  of  that  in  Judea, 
and  the  text  probably  does  not  refer  to  it  at  all. 
But  there  are  even  places  in  that  vast  Sahara  of 
death  where  blossoms  can  be  found. 

Then  there  are  the  deserts  where  it  almost 
never  rains;  but  some  plants,  specially  adapted  to 
arid  conditions,  can  be  made  to  grow;  and  other 
half  way  deserts,  where  it  rains,  at  least  a  little 
every  winter,  but  where  everything  dries  up 
and  turns  brown  early  in  the  season,  and  where 
there  is  then  hardly  any  evidence  of  plant  life  at 


228  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

all.  If  an  inexperienced  observer  saw  it  he  would 
think  there  was  no  hope  of  growing  anything 
there. 

The  prophet  probably  had  in  his  mind  a 
picture  of  things  as  they  really  happen,  and  this 
is  what  does  happen.  The  wilderness  is  bro^vn 
and  bare,  no  grass,  no  trees,  nothing  but  the 
colors  of  the  rocks  and  the  blue  of  the  sky,  the 
play  of  light  and  shade  to  tell  of  beauty.  Then 
the  season  changes  and  the  rain  begins.  ^N'obody 
lives  there,  but  flocks  are  pastured  there  sometimes 
in  the  season.  It  has  hardly  begun  to  rain  before 
greenness  begins,  and  before  very  long,  it  isn't  so 
much  grass  that  we  notice  but  that  the  whole  plain 
is  carpeted  with  flowers.  It  is  a  world  of  flowers. 
And  all  this  beauty  is  practically  for  nobody  to 
see,  unless  we  are  carried  up  to  the  essence  and 
nature  of  things,  and  realize  that  He  who  created 
beauty  loves  to  behold  beauty.  And  so  it  is  per- 
fectly according  to  His  nature  and  His  mind,  that 
He  who  comes  as  the  fruit  of  the  Mystic  Rose, 
should  be  "the  Chiefest  among  ten  thousand,  and 
altogether  Lovely." 

'Now  the  rougher  the  wild  country,  the  more 
apt  you  are  to  find  that  the  wild  flower  is  a  rose. 
It  isn't  the  flower  of  the  flat  plains.  It  loves  slopes, 
and  climbs  over  the  rocks.  Wherever  the  seepage 
of   water   between   the   rocks   gives   any   hope   of 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  229 

lingering  moisture,  there  the  wild  roses  luxuriate. 

Christ  reminds  us  of  the  Rose  springing  in  the 
desert,  because  He  comes  forth  out  of  an  appar- 
ently hopeless  national  history.  If  you  had  been 
looking  for  a  Redeemer,  would  you  have  looked 
to  the  little  arid  conquered  country  of  Palestine 
to  find  Him?  There  were  greater  nations,  there 
were  people  who  seemed  more  wonderful.  But 
the  Rose  came  out  of  the  Desert  of  History,  the 
wilderness  of  Judea. 

Then  He  was  first  found  in  the  wilderness. 
Men  went  out  to  hear  John  Baptist,  away  from 
the  city  and  its  artificialities,  and  he  showed  them 
Christ. 

Then  the  doctrine  and  life  of  Christ  are  both 
as  beautiful  as  they  can  possibly  be,  and  they  are 
yet  so  natural.  How  natural  is  goodness  when 
Christ  proclaims  it!  It  is  not  slavery  to  precept 
or  rule;  we  just  surrender  ourselves  into  God's 
hands,  and  let  ourselves  grow,  and  God  makes  oui 
lives  beautiful,  like  the  Saviour's.  Then  the  ros^ 
multiplies  in  a  way  that  makes  us  think  of  the 
wonderful  birth  of  Christ.  It  can  grow  from  the 
seed  haws,  but  it  does  come  up  from  the  root, 
shooting  up  some  distance  from  the  parent  stem. 
That  is  the  way  Christ  comes  by  a  new  kind  of 
birth,  to  be  "the  Branch  out  of  the  Root." 

And  then  the  thorns  remind  us  that  we  are  not 


230  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

worthy  to  touch  this  beauty  that  we  can  see. 
^'Draw  nigh"  ^^to  see  this  great  sight."  But  come 
not  too  nigh.  Even  in  the  Resurrection,  of  which 
the  springing  up  every  year  of  new  life  in  the 
wilderness  is  such  a  wondrous  type,  Christ  says, 
"Touch  Me  not."  And  there  is  this  other  curious 
possible  reflection  from  the  thorns.  It  has  been 
thought  that  the  thorns  of  Christ's  crown  were 
taken  from  a  very  rough  and  wild  member  of  the 
rose  family.  When  the  primeval  burden  was  laid 
upon  the  ground  for  man's  sin  it  was  said, 
"Thorns  also  and  thistles  shall  it  bring  forth  to 
thee."  And  this  would  include  the  thorns  of  the 
rose,  but  also  contained  the  Promise  of  the  Rose. 
So  Christ,  the  perfect  Man,  was  crowned  with 
thorns  by  other  men  of  wild  propensities ;  His  own 
race  run  wild.  They  had  run  to  brambles,  He 
was  the  perfect  Flower. 

And,  finally,  these  old  fragrances  that  we  meet 
among  the  relics  of  our  great-grandmothers — these 
rose-leaf  beads — they  came  from  the  blooms  of  a 
hundred  years  ago.  What  do  they  remind  us  of? 
Why,  they  bring  to  mind  the  refrain  of  many  a 
psalm  that  Israel  used  to  sing,  and  we  ought  never 
to  forget:  "His  Mercy  endureth  forever."  The 
beauty  of  holiness  cannot  die,  or  disappear  without 
leaving  some  other  reminder.  The  fragrance  of 
last  year's  roses  lingers  till  long  after  the  next 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  231 

year's  blooms  have  taught  again  the  Resurrection. 
"For  His  mercy  endureth  forever." 

Oh,  lavish  beauty  of  the  wild  rose !  We  are  of 
the  same  creation;  why  should  we  not  try  to  bring 
forth  plenteously  the  fruit  of  good  works?  The 
lavish  flow  of  the  sunlight,  the  vast  volume  of  the 
cataract,  the  ocean  of  the  winds,  the  infinities  of 
the  heavens,  and  the  whole  west  waving  with  wild 
flowers,  these  all  tell  us  not  to  "be  weary  of  well- 
doing," not  to  stint  our  sacrificial  outpouring  of 
our  powers.  E'othing  is  lost.  It  all  goes  back  to 
God.  And  He  is  good,  and  "His  mercy  endureth 
forever." 

But  it  is  the  Gospel  which  makes  the  desert 
bloom.  And  the  world  is  still,  so  much  of  it,  a 
wilderness.  Is  there  any  great  work  of  our  govern- 
ment which  has  so  much  attracted  us  of  late  years 
as  Reclamation?  And  is  not  this  just  the  other 
word  for  Redemption?  If  man  can  work  at  Re- 
clamation for  the  sake  of  agriculture,  why  cannot 
we  work  for  Redemption  for  Christ  ?  For,  where- 
ever  the  Gospel  goes,  there  come  "showers  of  bless- 
ing," and  "the  wilderness  shall  rejoice  and  blossom 
as  the  rose." 


THE  SINLESSNESS  OF  CHRIST 

Which  of  you  convinceth  Me  of  sin?    And  if  I  say 
the  truth,  why  do  ye  not  believe  Me? — St.  John  8:46. 

HE  Gospels  show  how  much  easier  it 
was  for  Christ  to  get  a  friendly  hear- 
ing among  the  poor  of  Galilee,  than 
among  the  wise  and  great,  who  should 
have  been  the  first  to  welcome  Him.  Whether  the 
hearing,  glad  though  it  was,  that  the  common 
people  gave  Him,  was  always  so  fruitful  in  the 
long  run,  is  another  question.  Our  Lord  warns 
us  that  quick  hearers  have  not  always  depth  of 
earth. 

But,  as  soon  as  our  Lord  met  the  professedly 
religious  at  Jerusalem,  He  met  enemies.  And  yet, 
if  He  were  what  He  claimed  to  be,  the  Scribes 
were  teaching  Llis  law,  and  the  Chief  Priests  were 
His  ministers.  But  they  cast  Him  out  and 
killed  Him. 

As  His  course  at  Jerusalem  was  more  difficult, 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  233 

SO  His  sayings  there  are  harder  to  follow.  We  no 
longer  have  simple  narrative,  but  deeply  argued 
and  spiritual  reasoning.  But,  thoughtfully  read, 
they  are  mines  of  instruction  and  admonition. 

What  impression  do  the  wise  men  of  Christ's 
day  make  upon  us  ?  Were  they  admirable  ?  No, 
indeed!  They  were  dead  conservatives,  unable  to 
give  new  truth  a  fair  hearing.  Such  dead  unbelief 
and  prejudice  has  little  to  say  for  the  intellect  or 
souls  of  those  in  bondage  to  it.  The  Sadducees 
denied  the  spiritual  because  they  had  no  experi- 
ence of  the  spiritual.  How  could  they  have,  when 
they  had  lost  the  organs  to  perceive  it  ? 

Have  we  less  faith  in  the  world  to-day  than  in 
old  times  ?  We  hardly  believe  it.  The  world  has 
always  had  some  faith,  and  some  unfaith.  And 
the  unfaith  of  to-day  is  not  very  unlike  that  of 
our  Lord's  time.  E'ow,  as  then,  there  are  the 
commercial  spirit,  the  class  spirit,  the  sensual 
spirit,  the  unimaginative,  lowered  gaze  of  the 
routine  man.  These  are  opposed  to  faith.  They 
never  mark  discoverers.  Those  who  think  that 
scepticism  is  dignified  and  intellectual,  do  not 
welcome  the  Gospel  now  any  more  than  when  it 
came  to  earth.  But  the  sceptics  of  our  Lord's 
day  do  not  appear  either  dignified  or  worthy. 

Education  in  the  best  sense  is  fine.  But  it 
does  no  good  to  clog  the  mind  with  the  undigested 


234  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

results  of  other  men's  faith  or  works.  Moses  had 
faith,  but  minds  clogged  with  traditions  tried  to 
quote  him  against  Christ.  We  need  an  open  soul ; 
we  need  to  avoid  all  forms  of  partisanship  or 
bigotry.  We  need  to  be  warned  against  degeneracy 
in  the  ideals  of  all  organization,  either  in  Church, 
State,  or  education. 

Our  Lord's  crucifixion  was  carried  out  by  or- 
ganized society.  All  organizations,  unless  care- 
fully watched,  tend  to  forget  what  they  are  for, 
and  to  live  for  themselves,  instead  of  their  original 
purposes.  Our  Lord  could  have  been  crucified  in 
any  country,  or  in  any  Church,  if  the  same  ele- 
ments as  were  in  control  in  Judea  could  have 
there  had  their  way.  God's  people  have  been  al- 
ways killing  prophets. 

Our  Lord  recognized  from  the  first  that  there 
was  only  one  outcome  of  His  struggle  with  the 
Chiefs  of  Israel.  They  could  not  change  their 
type.  He  came  to  save  sinners.  They  could  not 
recognize  themselves  as  sinners,  until  their  sin 
had  gone  just  as  far  as  it  possibly  could.  It  was 
not  only  necessary  for  Christ  to  die,  but  that  He 
should  be  killed  by  just  such  people.  If  we  have 
any  tendencies  like  those  of  the  Jews,  we  know  by 
observation  how  far  they  could  carry  us.  Even 
the  cool  scientist  can  become  a  persecutor  some- 
times.     There  seems  nothing  really  bloodthirsty 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  235 

about  Caiaphas.  One  just  thinks  of  him  as  a 
managing  person,  who  says,  "It  is  expedient,"  and 
rubs  his  hands.  There  is  modern  politics  for  you ! 
Where  could  such  a  class  get  the  faculty  to  judge 
of  sin?  But,  nevertheless,  our  Lord  submits  His 
claims  to  just  this  class,  this  prejudiced  court,  and 
His  claims  gain  power  because  they  were  not  able 
to  condemn  Him  fairly.  He  asks  them,  as  He 
asks  the  world,  "Which  of  you  convinceth  Me  of 
sin?"  Let  them  do  their  utmost.  If  they  can 
condemn  Him,  there  will  be  no  need  of  Pilate. 

The  Sinlessness  of  Christ  is,  with  us,  a  dogma 
of  the  Church.  We  have  arguments  that  convince 
us.  But  let  us  first  go  outside  the  Church.  What 
has  the  world  thought  about  Him?  What  has 
history  to  say  ?  History  is  neither  friend  nor  foe, 
it  is  just  a  record.  The  facts  are  impartial.  His- 
tory has  crowned  Him  King  of  Virtue. 

And  then  let  us  note  our  own  impressions 
from  the  bare  record  in  the  Gospel.  The  sinless 
Christ,  if  He  were  what  He  claimed  to  be,  was 
essentially  and  fundamentally  so.  He  must  have 
been  a  sinless  child.  Little  of  His  childhood  is 
recorded,  but  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  rest  of 
His  life.  He  was  subject  to  His  mother  and  foster 
father.  But  they  never  fully  understood  Him. 
If  His  answer  to  them  when  they  sought  Him  in 
the  Temple,  "Wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  about 


236  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

Mj  Father's  business?"  jars  on  anyone's  feelings, 
it  would  be  because  a  note  of  pertness  or  im- 
patience was  read  into  it.  But  it  is  not  really 
there.  After  the  ministry  began,  some  have  felt 
a  measure  of  discourtesy  in  our  Lord's  response  to 
His  mother  at  the  wedding  feast  at  Cana: 
''Woman,  what  have  I  to  do  Avith  thee  ?  Mine  hour 
is  not  yet  come."  But  a  sufficient  acquaintance 
with  the  manners  of  the  Jews,  and  the  fact  that 
His  mother  seemed  perfectly  satisfied  with  the 
answer,  show  that  the  answer  was  perfectly 
courteous. 

When  our  Lord  is  said  to  have  been  angry,  it 
was  because  He  was  ''grieved  at  the  hardness  of 
men's  hearts,"  and  He  signalizes  that  anger  by  a 
work  of  mercy.  Surely,  no  fault  can  be  shown 
in  Him  from  the  sacred  records,  as  looking  deeply 
removes  every  trace  of  word  or  deed  that  could 
justly  be  criticized.  The  recorded  character  of 
Christ  stands.  'No  flaw  can  be  found  in  it,  unless 
it  is  assumed  that  He  was  fundamentally  a  de- 
ceiver. In  this  case  we  have  the  inconceivable 
contradiction:  Here  is  the  teaching  of  a  morality 
so  high  that  it  allows  not  the  slightest  deviation 
from  truth  ("let  your  yea  be  yea,  and  your  nay, 
nay,"),  built  on  a  deception. 

Or,  if  you  assume  that  He  was  Himself  de- 
ceived, how  can  we  believe  that  God  intrusted  to 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  237 

a  deluded  man  the  revelation  of  the  highest  mo- 
rality the  world  has  ever  known?  If  there  is  no 
Christ,  is  there  any  God  ?  or  is  there  any  righteous- 
ness? 1^0,  there  was  no  fault.  Pilate  said  so, 
even  while  he  condenmed  Him  to  die,  because 
they  sought  false  witness  against  Him.  If  they 
had  had  a  true  witness,  they  would  not  have 
needed  false  witness.  The  men  who  knew  Him 
best,  the  early  apostles,  said  He  was  sinless;  for 
they  called  Him  the  spotless  Lamb  of  God.  And 
God  witnessed  to  Him;  for  He  raised  Him  from 
the  dead. 

His  testimony  to  Himself  was  indirect.  He 
claimed  sinlessness  by  submitting  Himself  to 
judgment.  If  we  hesitate  at  His  self-assertion,  let 
us  remember  that  His  sinlessness  belonged  to  His 
Gospel.  That  Gospel  would  have  been  radically 
different,  far  less  of  a  blessing  to  us,  with  that 
sinlessness  left  out.  We  needed  it,  and  we  needed 
His  calm  assurance  of  innocence,  as  well  as  all 
other  testimony. 

What  then  follows  if  we  take  this  sinlessness 
as  practically  admitted  by  all?  For  history  has 
never  ceased  to  admire  Christ,  whether  she 
crowned  Him  as  Man  or  God. 

Why,  first.  He  is  an  example.  He  has  "left 
us  an  example  that  we  should  follow  His  steps.'' 
He  has  not  only  told  us  how  to  be  good.  He  has 


238  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

showed  us  how  to  be  good.  It  is  all  in  the  Book. 
We  can  see  there  the  concrete  instance  of  how  He 
would  face  the  emergencies  and  labors  and  trials 
of  life.  He  is  the  New  Law,  the  Way.  And  He 
is  Life,  power  to  fulfil  the  law.  He  will  work 
still  in  us  as  He  worked  before. 

Next,  He  is  the  Sinless  Victim.  Such  a  sacri- 
fice had  been  sought  through  the  ages.  To  sacri- 
fice goats  for  men,  bodies  for  souls,  sinners  for 
sin,  these  were,  and  must  remain,  fruitless,  except 
to  signify  man's  longing  for  reconciliation,  or 
God's  mercy  in  drawing  him.  But  the  Perfect  for 
the  imperfect,  the  "Just  for  the  unjust,"  such 
could  be  accepted  and  avail  forever.  Such  could 
be  accepted,  but,  because  Justice  could  not  con- 
demn Him,  sinners  did.  And  His  own  Will  came 
to  make  Him  our  Sacrifice,  our  Kedeemer,  and 
the  Author  of  Everlasting  Life. 

Further,  He  is  our  Head.  We  are"complete 
in  Him."  He  has  not  won  for  us  a  fruitless 
pardon,  but  restored  to  us  a  perfected  humanity. 
Human  nature  came  first  good,  but  untried.  He 
comes  now  good,  and  perfectly  tried,  perfectly  ex- 
perienced, that  He  may  be  "Just  and  the  Justi- 
fier,"  Saviour  "to  the  uttermost,"  because  He  was 
"in  all  points  tempted,"  and  hath  "tasted  death 
for  every  man." 

But  He  must  be  something  more  than  we  are, 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  239 

though  as  we  are.  If  He  were  born  like  us,  of 
human  generation,  He  could  not  have  been  sinless. 
He  must  be  a  JSTew  Man,  untainted  by  any  Fall. 
We  can  not  believe  in  the  perfection  of  His  life, 
His  sacrifice,  His  redemption,  the  finality  of  His 
judgment,  unless  He  is  all  pure,  and  born,  as  the 
Scriptures  say,  of  a  pure  Virgin.  So  His  sinless- 
ness  is  that  of  the  God-Man.  If  we  let  the  In- 
carnation slip,  we  may  retain  certain  outward 
forms  and  garments  of  Christianity.  But  a  mere 
sentiment  of  admiration  will  hardly  sustain  us  in 
dark  days.  He  must  be  Divine,  or  He  has  not 
saved  us,  cannot  save  us. 

"If  I  tell  you  the  truth,  why  do  ye  not  believe 
Me?"  It  may  be  true  that  the  formal  arguments 
for  Christianity  have  been  left  incomplete,  as 
some  complain.  It  is  a  question  whether  they 
have.  If  they  had  been  as  full  as  some  men  might 
demand,  can  it  be  shown  that  an  overwhelming 
demonstration  of  truth  would  have  benefitted  us? 
The  evidence  we  have  is  a  cry  to  our  spirit  to 
awake  and  answer.  It  is  an  appeal  to  faith.  If 
the  stupendous  facts  were  too  plain,  might  they 
not  crush  us  ? 

Christ  asks  for  faith.  Science  will  come  along 
by  and  by,  we  may  well  believe,  with  her  demon- 
strations of  things  we  have  long  been  sure  of  by 
faith,  but  have  not  demonstrated.     While  she  has 


240  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

been  getting  ready,  "These  all  died  in  faith." 
Science  will  prove  many  things  after  we  are  dead. 
Do  not  wait.  Listen  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  the 
Sinless  One.  He  is  "the  Way,  the  Truth,  and 
the  Life." 


FOR  EASTER-TIDE 

Purge  out,  therefore,  the  old  leaven. — 1  Cor.  5 :  7. 

F  one  should  visit  a  wholesale  bakery 
now,  he  would  find  that  the  means  in 
use  there  for  raising  bread  were  almost 
all  chemical.  Bread  is  raised  now  by 
generating  certain  gases  which  have  been  found 
convenient.  A  man,  who  had  been  brought  up 
entirely  under  these  modern  methods,  might  not 
know  what  was  meant  by  "leaven!" 

Even  so  the  modern  housewife  uses  various 
kinds  of  baking  powders,  which  produce  chemical 
raising  of  the  dough.  Or,  she  buys  a  cake  or  two 
of  ready,  prepared  yeast,  much  different  from  that 
prepared  and  kept  with  great  trouble  by  our  grand- 
mothers, and  so  raises  her  bread.  She  hardly 
knows  what  is  meant  in  the  Bible  by  "leaven." 
What  did  they  use  in  those  old  days  ?  Yeast  was 
practically  unknown;  baking  powders  were  un- 
known; how  did  they  raise  their  bread?     Well, 


242  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

in  a  good  many  cases  they  did  not  raise  it  at  all, 
except  as  thorough  mixing,  a  pinch  of  salt,  and 
the  heat,  would  raise  it.  They  mixed  up  their 
flour  and  water  into  a  batter,  and  baked  it  on  hot 
stones,  and  it  came  off  in  the  shape  of  a  crinkly, 
brown  cracker,  quite  palatable. 

The  Arabs  to-day  use  the  same  kind  of  bread, 
and  call  it  blanket  bread,  and  you  may  buy  it 
around  Passover  time  in  the  Jewish  quarter  of  our 
great  cities.  There  they  call  it  Passover  Bread. 
It  is  like  the  unleavened  bread  of  the  Bible.  But 
for  raised  bread,  they  had  discovered  that  old,  sour 
bread  or  dough  would  ferment,  and  act  just  like 
yeast.  That  is,  it  would  give  out  the  gas,  carbonic 
oxide,  which  would  raise  the  dough,  if  a  piece  of 
the  sour  dough  were  hid  in  it.  And  it  need  be  but 
a  very  small  piece,  for,  "a  little  leaven,  leaveneth 
the  whole  lump."  Hence  we  find  God's  kingdom 
compared  by  our  Blessed  Lord  in  one  place  to  a 
seed,  "a  grain  of  mustard  seed,''  because,  though 
small,  it  had  within  it  life,  and  growth,  and  power ; 
and  in  another  place  to  a  piece  of  "leaven,"  on 
account  of  its  secret,  hidden  influence  on  the  whole 
of  society  where  it  is  present.  An  immense 
number  of  persons  are  thus  influenced  by  Chris- 
tianity and  the  Church  who  are  quite  unconscious 
of  its  influence  on  them. 

But,  because  this  old  fashioned  leaven  was  in 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  243 

itself  not  at  all  a  nice  thing,  looking,  tasting,  and 
smelling  the  sour  mass  that  it  was,  St.  Paul  uses 
it  figuratively  in  another  way,  to  express  the  evil 
influence  on  society,  and  especially  on  the  Church, 
of  the  bad  principles,  or  bad  customs,  of  even  a 
few  of  her  members. 

It  was  a  strict  commandment  among  the  Jews 
not  to  use  any  leavened  bread  at  Passover  time. 
They  even  had  a  custom  of  searching  their  houses 
thoroughly  with  candles  just  before  the  feast,  to 
find  and  cast  away  the  least,  last  scrap  of  leaven. 
This  was  a  memorial  of  the  fact  that  the  deliver- 
ance of  the  Jews  from  Egypt  came  in  a  very 
hurried  way.  The  last  great  plague  upon  the 
Egyptians  was  the  death  of  all  the  first  born  among 
them,  and  it  was  while  their  enslavers  were  suffer- 
ing the  first  paralyzing  effects  of  grief  at  such  an 
appalling  calamity,  that  the  Israelites  made  their 
escape.  They  had  no  time  to  finish  making  their 
bread.  Those  who  were  making  it  took  their 
kneading-troughs  with  the  dough  in  them,  before 
it  was  leavened,  or  raised.  It  takes  time  to  raise 
bread,  and  they  had  no  time.  And  ever  after- 
ward, at  Passover  time,  they  ate  their  food  with 
their  ^%ins  girded  up,  and  their  lights  burning,'' 
and  ate  the  feast  in  haste,  or,  as  if  in  haste,  in 
memory  of  a  hasty  deliverance. 

!N^ow  a  new  meaning  and  a  new  deliverance 


244  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

have  come  to  us  at  Passover  time.  "Christ  is  the 
very  Paschal  Lamb  which  was  offered  for  us,  and 
hath  taken  away  the  sin  of  the  world."  He,  "by 
His  death  hath  destroyed  Death,  and,  by  His  ris- 
ing again  to  life,  hath  brought  life  and  immortality 
to  light  through  the  Gospel."  This  Passover  has 
all  the  meaning  of  the  first  one,  and  yet  the  added 
meaning  of  that  other  great  Passover  which  the 
Israelites  celebrated  after  their  wandering  in  the 
wilderness  was  completed,  and  they  had  crossed 
the  Jordan  into  the  promised  land.  For  our  Lent 
is  over,  and  we  seek  to  live  in  newness  of  life. 

All  through  Lent  we  were  trying  to  find  out  in 
ourselves  the  tastes  and  habits  which  remind  us 
of  leaven,  the  sour  dough,  the  mass  of  corruption, 
of  which  a  very  little  could  leaven  the  whole  lump, 
especially  if  it  were  well  hidden.  Thus  we  were 
properly  seeking  the  secret  fault,  the  hidden 
trouble  which  was  perverting  our  lives,  and  making 
hypocrites  of  us.  The  Germans  have  some  de- 
lightfully strong  expressions.  They  call  the 
Biblical  leaven  simply  "sour  dough,"  and  the  un- 
leavened bread  is  the  "unsoured"  bread.  This  is 
the  kind  of  life  the  Christian  passover  asks  us  to 
live,  the  unsoured,  unspoiled  life.  We  are  bidden 
to  keep  the  great  feast  with  "the  unleavened  bread 
of  sincerity  and  truth,"  since  "Christ  our  Passover 
is  sacrificed  for  us." 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  245 

The  true  purpose  of  the  Christian  Lent  is  to 
help  us  to  get  rid  of  evil  propensities  which  we 
are  not  again  to  resume. 

Unfortunately,  this  is  not  the  way  many  people 
look  at  it.  They  do,  indeed,  make  some  sacrifices, 
and  some  effort  to  overcome  besetting  sins,  as  long 
as  Lent  lasts.  But  they  go  into  the  fast  with  the 
express  intention  of  going  back  to  worldliness  after 
Lent.  ;N'ow,  of  course,  a  good  part  of  a  rational 
Lenten  discipline  has  to  do  with  things  which  are 
perfectly  innocent.  We  have  gone  without  good 
things  because  we  desired,  perhaps,  to  make  a 
Christian  economy,  and  make  an  offering  of  the 
fruits  of  self-denial.  Or,  we  sought  fellowship 
with  Christ  through  the  lack  of  creature  comfort, 
or,  we  were  trying  to  teach  ourselves  to  say  "IN'o." 
This  is  not  what  we  refer  to,  although  it  is  plain 
that  this  age  is  always  too  prone  to  luxury,  and  is 
consequently  enfeebled  in  self-mastery  and  dis- 
cipline. 

But  too  many  people  give  up  only  had  habits  in 
Lent,  and  then  take  them  up  again  after  Easter. 
And  this  is  far  worse  than  if  they  had  never  given 
them  up.  It  turns  what  may  have  become  a  weak- 
ness, and  a  pitiable  failing,  into  a  deliberate  sin, 
and  makes  us  miss  the  whole  purpose  of  reform 
and  of  life.  The  Risen  Life  is  the  new  life.  It  is 
a  life  with  changed  and  uplifted  desires.     It  has 


246  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

seen  the  effect  of  the  Eesurrection,  has  begun  to 
appreciate  what  there  is  in  Heaven  for  us.  It  has 
hope  of  higher  possibilities.  It  sees  that,  by  union 
with  Christ,  one  may  "die  to  sin"  before  one  really 
dies  in  the  body,  putting  the  old  life  behind  one 
with  strong  resolution  and  complete  renunciation, 
by  the  help  which  comes  from  communing  with  the 
Risen  Lord. 

But  for  this  purpose  we  do  need  good  prin- 
ciples. We  do  need  to  give  up  all  delusions  of  the 
flesh  and  spirit.  'No  matter  how  apparently  in- 
significant the  self-delusion,  the  self-indulgence 
may  be,  it  may  be  to  us  that  "little  leaven  which 
leaveneth  the  whole  lump,''  and  turns  ultimately 
the  whole  life  sour  and  bad  again. 

Can  we  not  try  to  realize  profoundly  that  all 
sin  is  bad  ?  The  so  called  "pleasures  of  sin"  symp- 
tomatically  considered  are  equally  bad,  and  have 
seeds  of  death.  Even  the  little  sin  we  do  not  much 
account  of,  may  grow  with  unsuspected  rapidity 
into  something  dangerously  destructive,  unless  we 
from  the  start  realize  its  danger.  The  little  leaven 
leaveneth,  soureth  the  whole  lump. 

And  there  is  this  other  view:  Why  should  we 
not  desire  Christian  perfection  ?  Is  there  any  fear 
that  we  can  ever  be  too  good  ?  And  yet  the  little 
fault  certainly  becomes  conspicuous  in  proportion 
as  virtue  is  great.     Great  faults  make  us  forget 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  247 

little  ones,  and  great  virtues  throw  small  faults 
into  prominence.  But  shall  we  not  nevertheless 
seek  to  eradicate  all  faults  ?  Then  ^^purge  out  the 
old  leaven." 

There  is  another  powerful  thought  which  comes 
from  regarding  ourselves  as  bread,  unleavened 
bread.  Bread  is  all  any  man  needs.  Christ  is  the 
Bread  of  Life  because  He  is  all  we  need,  and  has 
provided  means  sacramentally  by  which  we  can 
feed  on  Him.  But  in  a  lower  sense  every  man  is 
bread  for  another  man,  because  we  are  mutually 
dependent,  mutually  influential.  It  is  impossible 
for  the  most  solitary,  self-centered  man  in  the 
world  to  live  absolutely  to  himself,  though  he  may 
easily  absorb  more  than  he  creates.  But  good,  ac- 
tive men  particularly  find  their  joy  in  the  amount 
of  support  they  can  give.  Their  gladness  comes 
from  supporting  wife,  children,  and  helping 
friends,  now  one,  now  another. 

Hence,  as  long  as  we  must  really  be  bread,  let 
us  be  good  bread.  Our  principles,  our  actions, 
either  elevate  or  depreciate  the  community  in 
which  we  live.  Every  word  we  speak  carries. 
Everything  we  do  is  weighed.  Every  time  we  say 
goodness  is  impracticable,  we  hurt  the  ideals  of 
some  soul.  Some  persons  affect  to  believe  the 
whole  Christian  religion  who  have  one  standard  in 
business,  and  yet  another  in  politics,  and  a  third 


248  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

at  home.  There  is  leaven  in  all  of  them.  And  yet 
the  true  life  demands  sincerity  and  truth;  sincer- 
ity and  truth  with  God,  sincerity  and  truth  with 
men,  sincerity  and  truth  with  ourselves.  And 
this  last  is  most  important,  because  we  often  de- 
ceive ourselves  most  seriously  of  all,  and  put  our- 
selves in  all  sorts  of  false  positions  because  we  are 
not  thus  square  with  ourselves.  There  is  absolutely 
nothing  that  can  compare  in  importance  with  the 
genuineness  of  our  Christianity.  Let  us,  therefore, 
seek,  all  through  this  Easter-tide,  for  the  effect 
in  and  on  ourselves  of  sincerity  and  truth.  Dis- 
honesty is  sour,  impurity  is  sour,  meanness  is  sour, 
bad  temper  is  sour,  covetousness  is  sour,  and  all 
will  sour  everything  with  which  they  come  in  con- 
tact. But  light  and  truth,  peace,  and  charity,  and 
self  denial,  all  are  sweet  things,  and  make  life 
sweet  for  ourselves,  and  all  around  us.  Thus 
Easter-tide  will  become  a  festal  season,  indeed, 
because  we  constantly  commune  in  character  with 
the  Kisen  Lord,  and  have  "set  our  affections  on 
things  above." 


THE  SEPULCHRE  IN  THE 
GARDEN 

In  the  'place  where  He  was  crucified  there  was  a 
garden^  and  in  the  garden  a  new  tomh,  wherein  was 
never  man  yet  laid. — St.  John  19 :  41. 

X  all  the  eastern  countries  gardens 
have  to  be  made  where  they  can  have 
water.  There  is  not  enough  rain  to 
depend  on  that  alone.  Sometimes  the 
necessary  water  comes  from  a  long  way  off.  There 
is  the  right  to  use  some  of  what  flows  by  in  the 
channels  of  a  great  irrigation  system.  Sometimes 
there  is  a  spring  or  well.  And  gardens  of  the  sort 
that  depend  on  a  small  but  sure  supply  of  water 
are  everywhere  common  in  the  East,  and  some  of 
them  are  very  small,  and  occur  where  we  should 
hardly  expect  them. 

Christ  was  crucified  in  a  place  called  Calvary, 
or  Golgotha,  or  "the  place  of  a  skull."  The  rock 
must  have  come  right  up  through  the  surface. 
We  have  all  seen  these  outcrops,  as  they  are  called, 
and   they   seem   most   unpromising   places   for    a 


250  HUMAN  QUESTIONS  AND 

garden.  But  often  at  the  foot  of  small,  rocky 
hills,  flowing  from  deep  seams  in  the  rock,  is  just 
the  place  to  look  for  a  spring.  So  here  were  life 
and  death  together.  There  must  have  been  "living 
water"  near  "the  place  of  a  skull." 

The  Greek  word  for  garden  has  passed  into 
theology  with  a  meaning  much  greater  than  it  has 
by  itself.  It  is  Paradise.  All  over  Christendom 
you  find  how  deeply  the  situation  of  Christ's  tomb 
has  impressed  itself  upon  His  followers,  and  how 
it  shows  in  the  care  of  our  dead.  See  in  the  dis- 
tance a  park  full  of  gorgeous  shrubs  and  flowering 
plants,  but  it  takes  no  near  approach  to  show  the 
tombs  among  the  lilies.  The  gardens  in  our  Lord's 
time  were  not  around  the  homes,  as  they  lie  here. 
That  would  have  been  often  impossible.  Gardens 
were  not  easy  to  have.  They  were  outside, 
generally  in  sight,  and  near  enough  to  watch  over 
them;  but  still  they  were  resorts  for  coolness,  for 
rest  and  refreshment,  as  well  as  places  where  men 
labored  with  their  tools  and  watering  devices. 

The  garden  seems  to  have  belonged  to  Joseph 
of  Arimathea,  or,  at  least  he  had  secured  the  right 
to  provide  himself  a  tomb  there,  hewed  out  of  the 
solid  rock.  The  face  of  the  rock  was  probably 
made  quite  vertical,  and  the  great  stone  which 
closed  it  was,  it  is  thought,  round,  like  a  mill-stone, 
and  rolled  in  a  groove,  so  that  when  it  reached  the 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  251 

bottom  of  the  groove  it  completely  closed  the  face 
of  the  outer  chamber  of  the  tomb.  It  would  be 
easier  to  roll  it  into  place  than  away  again,  if  we 
understand  the  construction  of  the  tomb.  It  was 
but  a  step  from  the  cross  to  the  tomb,  the  garden 
lying  just  under  Golgotha.  And  so  Joseph  and 
]^icodemus,  who  had  both  been  secret  disciples  of 
our  Lord,  now  come  out  and  beg  His  body  and 
lay  it  in  Joseph's  tomb,  wrapped  in  an  envelope 
of  precious  spices,  and  leave  Him — in  Paradise, 
the  garden.  His  soul  went  to  another  Paradise, 
God's  garden,  and  along  with  Him  went  the  soul 
of  the  penitent  thief. 

The  garden  lay  quiet  over  the  Sabbath.  But 
in  the  night  that  followed  the  Sabbath  it  was  the 
scene  of  the  greatest  Fact  of  history.  The  Divine 
Sleeper  rose  from  the  dead.  And  after  the  Sleeper 
rose  the  angels  came,  and  the  soldiers  fled  who  had 
watched  there.  One  angel,  mighty  and  strong, 
rolled  away  the  stone  and  sat  upon  it,  and  others 
went  and  sat  where  the  body  had  been  laid;  and 
it  was  their  ministering  hands  we  may  believe 
that  wrapped  the  linen  clothes  in  order  before  they 
said  to  the  women,  "Come,  see  the  place  where  the 
Lord  lay.''  When  Peter  and  John  afterward  could 
bring  themselves  to  enter,  they  found,  not  indeed, 
the  angels  as  the  women  had  seen,  but  the  beautiful 
order  which  they  left  behind. 


252  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

We,  too,  bury  our  dead  out  of  our  sight,  be- 
cause in  the  order  of  nature  it  is  necessary  to  do 
so.  But  we  love  to  bury  them  in  a  garden.  We 
know  that  our  Saviour's  body  saw  no  corruption, 
and  we  know  that  our  bodies  do  see  corruption. 
And  so,  when  we  look  upon  the  places  where  our 
beloved  lie,  we  do  indeed  see  around  us  evidences 
of  peace  and  rest,  inscriptions  of  faith  and  victory. 
But  we  do  not  look  within.  Corruption  hinders 
us. 

Has  then  the  view  of  the  order  within  the 
grave  of  Christ  nothing  to  say  to  us,  in  the  differ- 
ent circumstances  of  our  deaths?  Yes,  indeed; 
for  what  is  corruption?  It  is  not  a  pleasant 
thought,  but  it  need  not  be  a  blow  to  faith  or  com- 
fort. It  is  a  simple  word,  meaning  merely  "si 
breaking  up."  As  the  body  of  Christ  was  separated 
from  His  soul,  so  the  various  elements  of  our 
bodies  are  separated  from  each  other  in  the  grave. 
But  the  process  is  not  disorderly.  It  follows  the 
laws  of  E'ature  which  are  the  laws  of  God. 

When  the  seed  that  is  to  "bring  forth  much 
fruit"  is  hidden  in  the  ground,  it  moulders  away, 
just  as  surely  as  do  our  bodies,  and  gives  us  in 
one  process  the  mystery  of  life,  and  the  mystery 
of  death.  There  is  no  disorder  in  the  grave. 
There  is  no  loss.  What  you  hide  from  your  own 
eyes  you  do  not  hide  from  God.    You  scatter  things 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  253 

throughout  the  universe,  but  they  never  get  far 
from  God.  The  last  breath  of  a  man  goes  straight 
to  God,  though  the  man  freeze  to  death  on  the 
Labrador  or  fall  in  the  Sahara;  all  winds  that 
sweep  away  the  failing  breath  bear  it  home. 

Turn  now  to  the  garden  outside.  This  is 
beautiful.  Is  a  dead  body  beautiful?  It  has  a 
certain  beauty  not  in  life,  lasting  a  brief  space, 
because  death  wipes  away  the  traces  of  conflict 
always  going  on  while  we  live.  Peace  always 
seems  to  touch  us  first,  after  we  go.  But  this  is 
brief.  Look  now  at  this  seed;  is  it  beautiful? 
'Not  unless  you  see  things  deep.  It  is  small,  weak, 
insignificant,  apparently  dead.  But  what  are 
these  roses,  lilies,  vine  blossoms?  What  is  the 
source  of  all  this  beauty  and  fragrance  ?  It  has 
all  come  from  buried  things,  from  little  seeds  that 
seemed  dead,  and  then  irreparably  dead.  It  is 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  "It  is  sown  in  cor- 
ruption, it  is  raised  in  incorruption.  It  is  sown 
in  weakness,  it  is  raised  in  power.  It  is  sown  in 
dishonor,  it  is  raised  in  glory :"  mortality  has  been 
swallowed  up  in  life." 

Take  up  a  handful  of  the  churchyard  mould. 
Under  this  we  shall  sleep.  But  what  says  the 
Psalmist?  "My  flesh  also  shall  rest  in  hope." 
Take  a  strong  glass  and  look  at  this  handful.  It 
seems  even  to  be  alive.    What  is  this  that  is  cover- 


254  HUMAN  QUESTIONS 

ing  the  fall  sowing  ?  Is  it  soil  ?  May  we  not  call 
it  hope?  There  would  be  no  hope  if  there  were 
no  covering. 

"Come,  see  the  place  where  the  Lord  lay,"  that 
you  may  learn  from  its  heavenly  order  the  sense 
of  God's  power  to  keep  His  promises,  so  that  you, 
too,  may  rest  in  hope. 

"I  will  lay  me  down  in  peace  and  take  my 
rest'';  "when  I  awake  after  Thy  likeness  I  shall 
be  satisfied  with  it." 


DELIVERANCES 

We  have  heard  with  our  ears,  0  God,  our  fathers 
have  told  us  what  Thou  hast  done  in  their  time  of 
old.— Psalm  44:1. 

HEIST  the  Jubilee  Singers  from  the 
South  first  made  us  familiar  with 
the  real  negro  melody,  as  distin- 
guished from  the  light  songs  so  popu- 
lar before  the  Civil  War,  men  became  conscious 
of  a  new  impression.  It  was  undeniably  gro- 
tesque, what  they  then  listened  to,  but  it  showed 
genuine  religious  feeling  and  a  rude  dignity,  at 
which  many  were  surprised.  It  is  not  so  many 
years  ago  that  a  leading  European  composer,  al- 
ready most  favorably  known  in  this  country  for 
his  sacred  music,  came  over  the  sea  to  us,  and 
examined  this  genuine  negro  music  with  great  in- 
terest. Dr.  Dvorak,  to  whom  is  the  reference,  is 
said  to  have  prophesied  that  if  any  peculiar  school 
of  music  ever  rose  up  in  America,  it  would  be 


256  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

founded  upon  the  negro  music  of  the  old  slave 
days. 

One  of  these  melodies  comes  to  mind  in  be- 
ginning to  consider  this  subject.  It  ran,  as  the 
Hampton  students  used  to  sing  it: 

"The  Lord  delivered  Moses, 
The  Lord  delivered  Moses, 
The  Lord  delivered  Moses, 

Why  can't  He  deliver  me?" 

This  is  a  modern  and  simple  expression  similar 
in  all  respects  to  the  petition  in  the  English 
Litany,  where  the  words  of  the  forty-fourth  Psalm 
are  used  as  a  prayer  for  the  whole  Church : 

'^We  have  heard  with  our  ears,  O  God,  our 
fathers  have  told  us  the  noble  works  which  Thou 
didst  in  their  time,  and  in  the  old  times  before 
them." 

Arts.  "O  Lord,  arise,  help  us,  and  deliver 
us  for  Thine  honour." 

Eight  through  this  runs  the  same  feeling  as 
in,  ''Why  can't  He  deliver  me?" 

Have  we,  in  our  greater  wisdom,  gotten  past 
things  like  these?  The  Conception  of  ^N'ature, 
through  which  and  above  which  the  Lord  deliv- 
ered Moses,  Gideon,  and  other  worthies,  told  about 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  as  living  in  days  of 
faith,  Avas  formerly  very  different  from  that  which 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  257 

is  now  held ;  but  does  this  make  any  real,  necessary 
difference  in  what  Ave  may  call  the  fundamentals 
of  a  practical  theology  ?     Let  us  examine. 

It  was  a  very  simple  age,  mechanically  con- 
sidered, when  the  angel  of  God  appeared  to  Gid- 
eon to  tell  him  that  he  must  be  the  deliverer  of 
Israel  from  Midianitish  oppression.  Israel,  too, 
was  perhaps  the  least  mechanical  of  all  nations. 
It  was  always  so.  The  line  of  Cain  was  more 
mechanical  than  the  line  of  Seth,  the  chosen  one, 
and  the  Israelites  had  to  go  to  the  Philistines  to 
find  a  blacksmith.  This  is  why  we  still  call  the 
man  who  translates  everything  into  terms  of  dead 
practicality,  and  has  no  use  for  the  idealist  or 
seer,  a  Philistine.  Gideon  was  doing  his  thresh- 
ing in  a  way  now  strange  to  us,  on  a  dry,  smooth 
dirt  floor,  with  hardly  the  idea  of  a  tool  about  the 
work.  He  was  driving  oxen  around  the  floor 
upon  the  straw,  possibly  with  some  kind  of  a 
drag,  and  possibly  relying  mainly  upon  their  feet 
to  loosen  the  grain.  To  him  appeared  the  heavenly 
messenger.  And  when  he  seeks  a  sign  from  God 
that  he  is  actually  the  chosen  one,  he  seeks  a  very 
simple  one,  very  direct,  implying  the  nearness 
and  direct  providence  of  God  to  his  mind.  He 
put  a  fleece  of  wool  on  the  threshing  floor,  and 
asked  that  there  might  be  "dew  upon  the  fleece 
and  none   on   the   floor" ;    and   again,    that  there 


258  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

might  be  "dew  on  the  floor  and  none  on  the 
fleece" ;  and  these  signs  were  given.  Thus  he 
doubted  not  of  his  direction. 

Is  there  anything  in  the  discoveries  of  the 
present  age  to  weaken  our  faith  in  the  power,  the 
will,  and  the  reality  in  the  dealings  of  Him  whom 
we  call  God  with  humanity,  and  individual  men? 

For  we  live  in  a  very  mechanical  age.  The 
modern  Gideon  when  he  threshes  to-day,  uses  other 
and  wonderful  means.  He  draws,  by  its  own  trac- 
tion, his  steam  engine  and  threshing  machine  to 
his  field,  where  already  his  combined  reaper  and 
binder  has  done  its  work,  gathering  the  harvest 
of  a  square  mile  of  wheat  without  a  man's  hand 
to  anything  but  a  lever,  or  a  line.  These  ma- 
chines are  marvels  of  ingenuity;  cog,  and  wheel, 
lever  and  belt,  ratchet  and  bevel,  are  all  at  work, 
and  doing  almost  as  wondrously  as  the  angel  did 
with  Gideon's  sacrifice.  Man  and  his  machine 
have  become  so  wonderful  that — what  has  become 
of  God  ?  We  might  answer  that  the  wheat  would 
sufficiently  testify  to  Him;  but  let  us  get  to  the 
bottom  of  our  mechanics. 

At  the  same  time  that  man  is  so  greatly  de- 
veloping his  own  tools,  a  greater  realization  of  the 
mechanics  of  the  universe  has  surely  grown  upon 
his  mind.  His  telescope  has  brought  coimtless 
worlds  close  to  his  sight  and  ken,  about  which  he 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  259 

speaks  in  terms  of  millions  of  miles  and  thousands 
of  years,  jet  has  reduced  them  all  to  terms  of 
mathematics.  He  understands  all  their  curves, 
and  cycles,  and  they  are  like  the  lines  which  he 
draws  on  his  blackboards,  or  text-book  pages.  He 
looks  down  into  his  mines,  and  finds  nature  work- 
ing there  in  the  same  forms  which  are  axiomati- 
cally  forced  upon  his  own  mind  by  that  power 
which  made  it,  however  made.  He  goes  into  an 
iron  mine,  and  finds  a  crystal  of  iron,  which  made 
itself — if  you  listen  to  child's  talk;  but  which  the 
mathematician  made — if  you  listen  to  reason — a 
perfect  octahedron;  yet  all  its  edges  are  flattened 
just  a  little  and  just  alike,  save  where  perhaps 
some  overlapping  pressure  has  made  just  enough 
inequality  to  emphasize  the  regularity  of  the  rest. 
They  call  it  magnetite,  whether  accurately  or  not. 
By  any  name  it  is  wonderful. 

Then  as  man's  telescope,  so  also  his  spectro- 
scope, and  his  microscope,  have  revealed  to  him 
the  wonders  of  nature.  Geology  and  astronomy 
both  have  changed  his  chronology,  and  put  back 
far  beyond  any  human  computation,  the  beginnings 
of  things  we  see.  Has  not  all  this  driven  the 
Creator  far  away  from  us?  Must  not  His  in- 
itiatory work  have  been  so  long  ago  that  He  has 
ceased  to  take  knowledge  of  the  motes  which  peo- 
ple this  insignificant  planet  ? 


260  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

But  would  not  all  this  world  get  strangely  out 
of  order,  like  the  best  human  machines,  without 
Him?  Why  is  the  rainbow  the  same  in  the  little 
fly's  wing,  as  on  the  sunny  side  of  the  nimbus? 
Why  is  it  always  there  Avhen  there's  light  enough  ? 
Why  are  the  lilies  of  the  field  still  worth  consid- 
ering ? 

In  an  old  picture  of  the  weird  sisters,  The 
Fates,  one  is  seen  holding  the  primitive  spinner, 
the  distaff,  and  twisting  the  thread  without  a 
wheel.  What  a  change  to  the  spinning- jenny !  In 
a  modern  cotton  mill  one  sees  a  child  tending  a 
thousand  threads.  Her  hand  starts  the  frame  in 
motion,  and  controls  the  belt ;  her  watchful  eye  is 
upon  the  moving  frame.  If  a  thread  breaks,  she 
springs  and  checks  the  motion,  and  ties  it  up.  It 
needs  somebody  to  watch.  And  as  we  look  at 
man's  mechanics,  the  same  passage  of  Ezekiel  is 
suggested  to  us,  ^'The  spirit  of  the  living  creature 
is  in  the  wheels." 

They  tell  us  that  the  more  machinery  we  have, 
the  more  power  we  need;  and  that  is  so.  But 
when  we  see  enormous  lines  of  shafting  whirling, 
we  know  that  the  power  must  be  there ;  and  when 
we  behold  exceedingly  intricate  machinery,  like  a 
type-casting  machine,  we  know  that  it  isn't  the 
machine  we  admire,  but  the  mind  that  thought  it 
out.     And  no  matter  how  vast,   and  strong,  and 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  261 

far-reaching,  the  mechanical  operations,  the  man 
must  not  only  start  them  but  stand  by  them;  for 
the  man  is  more  wonderful  than  the  machine. 
The  man  controls  the  law  of  the  machine.  He 
does  not  break  its  law,  but  he  serves  himself  by 
its  law. 

And  thus  the  pious  man  sees  that  God  controls, 
works  in  and  through  His  own  machine.  We 
glorify  God  because  He  seems  to  us  as  near  as  in 
the  old  times  before  us  He  must  have  seemed,  and 
infinitely  more  powerful  than  when  men  appreci- 
ated the  infinite  so  much  less  than  we  do  now. 
Once  we  said:  "He  holds  the  seas  in  the  hollow 
of  His  hands."  ^ow,  were  we  to  write  of  His 
power,  we  would  say.  He  holds  in  His  constant 
thought  the  atoms  and  the  inter-astral  spaces; 
while  He  loves  the  souls  of  men.  Yes,  He  is 
powerful.  He  is  Mighty,  "the  Mighty  God,  the 
Everlasting  Father." 

So,  since  man  became  a  mechanician  it  is  fit- 
ting that  his  growth  in  this  department  should 
lead  him  to  a  fresh  revelation  of  God.  To  the 
simple  man  comes  the  direct  revelation;  to  the 
complex  man,  God  may  still  speak  more  directly, 
even,  than  we  can  describe,  but  He  speaks  in  every 
way  with  more  power,  with  more  majestic  mind. 

But  some  who  have  studied  deeply  may  say. 
Are  there  not  flaws  in  the  universe?     And,  par- 


262  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

ticularly,  are  there  not  flaws  in  man  ?  Not, 
merely,  in  what  we  call  his  moral  make-up,  but 
in  his  physical  make-up  ?  What  are  these  odd, 
disused  organs,  survivals  of  some  former  stage,  un- 
less evidences  that  nature  was  groping;  that  her 
pathway  was  hedged  up  here,  and  opened  there,  as 
if  she  were  repenting  of  her  mistakes,  and  seeking 
for  some  excellence  yet  unknown  ? 

It  seems  that  there  is  also  an  analogical  an- 
swer here.  Nature  is  not  merely  mechanical! 
Mechanics  and  morals  are  inseparably  related. 
Man  does  not  make  his  sense  of  the  moral;  it 
comes  to  him  from  without,  though  it  finds  an 
answer  in  him.  Morals  seem  to  flow  on  around 
us  just  as  Nature's  laws  do;  through  us  indeed, 
but  also  around  us,  so  that  modern  thinkers  postu- 
late "a  stream  of  tendency  not  ourselves,  which 
makes  for  righteousness."  Man,  then,  as  moral, 
and  as  a  physical  part  of  a  physical  creation  which 
is  also  moral,  has  to  face  this  curious  experience 
of  life  and  mentality:  that  we  only  acquire  a  real 
grasp  of  knowledge  and  virtue  through  experi- 
ment. We  can  only  enter  exactly  into  another 
man's  knowledge  through  his  experiences.  This 
accounts  for  the  unfruitful  character  of  many 
traditions.  They  are  not  touched  with  life  until 
something  happens  to  give  them  reality. 

So  the  doctrine  of  the  Fall  of  man  has  been 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  263 

sometimes  paradoxically  stated  to  have  been  a  Fall 
Upward;  though  whatever  truth  there  is  in  the 
paradox  is  through  the  operation  of  an  overruling 
Providence.  (There  could  have  been  a  religious 
experience,  without  an  experience  of  sin.)  But, 
nevertheless,  the  experience  of  sin  has  worked 
very  strongly  upon  many  minds,  and  one  arising 
and  coming  to  his  Father,  has  to  come  to  a  home, 
and  a  sense  of  home,  which  those  who  have  con- 
stantly abode  there  have  never  realized.  This  is 
what  Tennyson  doubtless  means  when  he  sings — 

"That  men  may  rise  on  stepping  stones 
Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things." 

That  was  written  before  evolution  was  in  the 
air,  though  Tennyson  and  Darwin  were,  never- 
theless, friends. 

The  physical  and  moral  are  so  closely  related 
(with  modern  cranial  physiology  it  is  going  to  be 
impossible  to  separate  them,  and  why  not  ?  What 
God  hath  joined  together,  let  no  man  put  asunder) 
— that  we  ought  to  be  prepared  to  see  this  same  law 
of  experimental  approach  to  truth  come  out  in 
both.  The  apparent  mistakes  of  nature  need  not, 
therefore,  confound  us.  We  look  upon  them  as 
showing  that,  constituted  as  we  are,  we  can  not 
merely  be  told  the  truth,  we  must  find  it  out. 
Faith  is  mightier  than  facts.    Facts  may  lie  heavy. 


264  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

but  faith  moves.  The  north  pole  no  longer  stirs 
the  adventurous  since  it  has  been  found. 

So  God  can  help,  and  the  indications  of  our 
nature  are  that  He  ivill  and  does  help.  Remedies 
are  all  around  us  in  nature. 

Then,  as  we  come  down  to  the  declarations  of 
the  Gospel  for  corroboration,  and  turn  to  Him 
whom  we  believe  to  have  been  the  chief  of  all  Re- 
vealers  of  the  Divine  character,  we  find  Christ 
answering  the  leper  who  did  not  doubt  God's  power, 
but  only  His  will,  thus:  The  leper  cried,  ^Tord, 
if  Thou  wilt.  Thou  canst  make  me  clean."  And 
our  Lord,  acting  as  representative  of  God,  an- 
swered, "I  will,  be  thou  clean,"  showing  His 
exceeding  earnestness  to  impress  this  Avillingness 
upon  all  who  should  hear  the  story,  by  even  going 
so  far  as  to  break  with  a  ceremonial  law.  If  it 
had  been  possible  for  Him  to  have  contracted  de- 
filement by  touching  the  leper.  He  must  have 
done  so.  But  He  was  not  defiled;  the  leper  was 
cleansed.  And  St.  Paul  echoes  this  Will  of  His 
Divine  Master  when  he  writes,  ^'This  is  the  Will 
of  God,  even  your  sanctification." 

The  next  and  most  important  question  is,  Does 
He  help?  It  is  probable  that  there  would  be 
several  answers  to  this  question.  But  assuming  the 
character  and  integrity  of  witnesses,  one  thing  is 
always  demanded  in  our  courts:  that  they  should 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  265 

know  the  things  about  which  they  testify.  A  mere 
statement  that  one  has  never  had  a  given  experi- 
ence, does  not  weigh  against  the  statement  of  men 
of  reputation  and  sanity  that  they  have  themselves 
experienced  such  and  such  things.  That  three 
men  saw  the  prisoner  at  the  bar  at  such  a  time  and 
place,  will  be  hard  to  outweigh  through  testimony 
from  many  that  they  did  not  see  him.  So  a 
Christian  is  alert  in  many  ways  in  which  the 
man  of  the  present  is  not.  He  has  his  eyes  open, 
because  he  is  looking  for  God  and  Christ.  He  is 
taught  to  find  Christ  in  the  crowded  city,  or  alone 
upon  the  house-top.  He  is  trained  to  listen  both 
to  silence  and  voices.  He  believes  in  the  Unseen. 
He  does  not  think  it  unphilosophical,  supposing 
there  is  a  God,  to  observe  in  Him  the  chief  agent, 
in  all  things  that  happen,  rather  than  to  lay  the 
great  stress  upon  the  inferior  agency,  or  the 
mechanical  process.  To  him,  what  matters  it  how 
God  does  it,  if  He  does  it,  save  as  for  food  for 
admiration,  because  "He  doeth  all  things  well." 

The  Christian  man  is  full  of  faith  in  special, 
in  overruling,  in  remedial  providences.  He  there- 
fore believes  in  prayer,  because  God  is  standing 
by.  The  Lord,  as  the  psalmist  says,  "shall  stand 
by"  His  saints,  "and  deliver  them,  because  they 
put  their  trust  in  Him."  When  a  man  believes, 
as  taught  by  St.   Paul,  that  his  very  body  is  a 


266  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  it  is  not  far  to  a  special 
providence,  not  far  from  a  God  who  can,  will  and 
does  help. 

We  must,  of  course,  expect  to  have  the  objec- 
tion from  lack  of  experience  numerously  urged. 
In  the  multiform  divisions  of  modern  life,  how- 
ever, we  ought  not  to  lack  simple  illustrations  of 
the  illogical  character  of  this.  The  story  is  told 
of  a  great  traveller  who  was  relating  to  the  dwellers 
in  Central  Africa,  tales  of  his  experiences  in 
other  lands,  and  giving  many  descriptions  of  life 
as  it  is  in  the  Europe  of  to-day.  They  accepted  all 
that  he  said,  or  seemed  to,  until  he  told  them  that, 
in  the  country  he  came  from,  there  was  a  time  of 
the  year  when  all  the  rivers  became  so  hard  that 
men  could  walk  on  them.  To  this  their  chief 
replied:  "ISTow  we  know  you  are  lying.  We  were 
disposed  to  believe  you  before,  but  this  proves  that 
you  have  been  lying  all  the  time."  And  all  this 
for  a  matter  as  simple  as  ice ! 

ISTow  St.  Paul  says,  "I  know  whom  I  have 
believed."  Who  can  testify  against  him  ?  Who 
can  say  anything  against  the  Christian  who  echoes 
the  Psalmist,  "Praised  be  the  Lord,  for  He  hath 
heard  the  voice  of  my  humble  petition?" 

Let  us  keep  up  the  traditions  of  our  fathers. 
They  who  have  testified  what  God  did  in  their 
days  have  been  an  illustrious  line,  worthy  of  all 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  267 

admiration.  Thank  God  for  the  men,  as  well  as 
for  the  deeds.  Let  us  be  the  men  they  were.  Let 
us  not  think  of  God  as  outside  the  sky  line,  the 
star  line.  Let  us  not  think  of  Him  as  an  unknown, 
outside  the  limits  of  the  known.  And  not  as  our 
first  parents  tried  to  hide  from  One  who  was 
"walking  in  their  garden  in  the  cool  of  the  day," 
let  us,  confessing  our  sins  and  imploring  His  help, 
fly  to  meet  Him  who  can,  will  and  does  help  His 
children,  in  secret  places  of  the  soul,  in  the  high 
places  of  nature,  and  in  the  assembly  of  the  faith- 
ful, because  "He  is  good,  and  His  mercy  endureth 
forever." 


CHRISTMAS-TIDE 

THE  LEADING  OF   THE   CHILD 

A  little  Child  shall  lead  them. — Isaiah  11 :  6. 

S  there  anything  born  so  helpless  as  a 
young  child?  And  yet  is  there  any- 
thing so  powerful  ?  It  is  true  that 
there  are  different  kinds  of  power. 
There  is  the  power  that  a  strong  man  exercises 
when  he  lifts  great  weights,  or  engages  in  athletic 
contests,  wrestling,  boxing,  and  the  like.  But 
this  is  a  single  man's  power,  and  cannot  affect 
anything  far  from  the  place  where  he  stands.  And 
there  is  the  other  power  that  can  compel  obedience, 
not  only  of  the  arm  to  the  single  will,  but  of  many 
wills  to  one.  One  is  simple  physical  force,  but 
the  other  is  something  vastly  higher  and  more 
effective. 

A  king  may  be  a  young  man,  not  by  any  means 
grown  to  his  full  vigor,  yet  the  arm  and  the  weapon 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  269 

of  every  man  in  the  kingdom  belongs  to  him,  and, 
were  he  a  child,  his  power  might  be  even  greater 
in  a  certain  way.  For  against  a  young  man  or  a 
half-grown  boy  a  man  might  rebel,  who  could  not 
lift  his  finger  to  resist  the  imperious  will  of  a 
helpless  babe. 

When  a  child  comes  to  us  for  the  first  time,  it 
becomes  the  master  of  the  house.  And  where  hus- 
band and  wife  have  not  been  well  agreed,  and 
where  the  will  of  the  other  was  hard  and  bitter  for 
the  wife  to  yield  to,  or  the  husband  to  satisfy, 
where  a  disrupted  home  has  been  threatened,  and 
all  the  wisdom  of  friends  or  persuasion  of  the 
Church  has  not  been  able  to  avert  the  threatened 
breach,  into  that  home  has  come  a  child,  and  with 
baby  fingers  has  drawn  together  cords  that  no  one 
else  could  draw,  and  with  a  soft  hand  held  down 
an  earthquake. 

There  is  something  else  in  nature,  too,  that 
shows  the  power  of  the  child.  Where  do  those 
wonderful  stories  come  from,  like  the  story  of 
Romulus  and  Remus,  the  wolf-suckled  twins  who 
founded  Rome  ?  Is  that  a  pure  invention,  or  did 
things  like  that  ever  happen?  Things  like  that 
have  happened,  wise  men  tell  us,  many  times. 
The  wolf-mother  would  have  attacked  or  fled 
from  a  man,  but  she  obeyed  and  nourished  the 
child.     Little   children   have   played   with    entire 


270  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

safety  with  many  sorts  of  wild  animals;  a  child 
may  be  made  the  absolute  lord  of  a  great  dog 
which  could  pull  down  a  stag.  If,  then,  these  wild 
beasts  which  Isaiah's  prophecy  tells  about  are  ever 
to  be  brought  to  peace,  if  ever  they  are  to  share 
in  mutual  peace  the  food  of  those  that  would  be 
otherwise  their  prey,  if  the  enemy  is  ever  to  be 
tamed,  it  must  be  done  by  the  compelling  power 
of  innocent,  dependent,  and  helpless  love.  The 
world  cannot  be  made  good  by  force,  but  it  can  be 
blessed  everywhere  by  the  power  of  the  Child 
Jesus. 

When  Christ  was  born  in  Bethlehem,  the 
Father  of  all  put  His  hand  upon  the  heart  of  the 
world.  The  dumb  domestic  beasts  who  sur- 
rounded the  manger  must  all  have  been  glad  to 
see  His  Son.  They  always  are.  Ko  finger  would 
have  been  raised  against  the  peace  of  that  manger 
had  it  not  been  for  Herod,  perhaps  the  most  un- 
natural monster  of  which  history  knows.  Had 
he  been  but  like  a  lion,  or  a  bear,  or  a  leopard, 
or  even  a  venomous  serpent,  he  might  have  been 
tamed;  but  he  was  the  foe  of  his  own  flesh,  and 
his  own  children  had  been  put  to  death  by  him. 
There  was  no  name  fierce  or  hateful  enough 
whereby  to  describe  him.  But  over  the  rest  of 
the  world  Christ  began  to  reign  from  the  manger, 
from  His  mother's  arms. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  271 

The  gift  of  the  Saviour  in  this  form  also  shows 
the  amazing  confidence  and  trust  God  places  in 
man.  Every  child  that  is  born  is  some  mark  of 
this  confidence,  because  it  is  God's  child,  too,  lent 
to  us.  But  there  God  put  His  Only  Begotten 
into  the  hands  of  little  understanding  men,  to 
nurse  for  Him.  ^'God  so  loved  the  world  that  He 
gave  His  Only  Begotten  Son."  He  gave  Him,  in- 
deed, to  die  for  us,  but  first  of  all  to  live  for  us, 
and  the  giving  of  the  Infant  was  a  step  in  redemp- 
tion. To  a  holy  soul  it  seems  to  have  been 
enough.  The  benefits  of  Christ's  death  are  not 
denied  to  those  who  loved  Him  and  yielded  them- 
selves to  His  charm,  even  before  the  Eedemption 
which  came  by  His  blood.  The  babe  was  holy 
Simeon's  Saviour.  "Mine  eyes,"  he  said,  "have 
seen  Thy  Salvation." 

Then  if  the  Saviour  had  come  from  heaven  as 
the  angels  come,  in  the  fulness  of  their  beauty, 
without  coming  in  through  the  doorway  of  all 
human  experience,  what  would  the  children  have 
done  for  a  Saviour?  For  we  are  saved  through 
the  experience  of  the  Lord.  If  He  had  never  been 
a  boy,  how  could  He  be  to  the  tempted  boy  what 
He  can  be  now  ?  Perhaps  it  wasn't  so  much  that 
He  needed  what  sympathy  could  bring  to  the  help 
of  His  saving  work,  but  oh,  we  needed  to  know 
that  He  had  first  tasted  every  man's  cup,  and  laid 


272  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

His  hand  upon  every  man's  work.  It  was  of  God's 
great  mercy  that  Christ  could  be  born  a  child. 

And  how,  without  this  gift,  could  we  have 
learned  what  we  now  know  of  the  character  of 
God?  Men  had  been  so  afraid  of  God  that  they 
were  afraid  to  know  Him  at  all.  They  were 
afraid  of  Him,  though  they  had  no  true  fear  of 
Him.  They  were  afraid  of  His  presence,  when 
they  ought  to  have  feared  His  absence.  But 
Christ  is  laid  in  His  mother's  arms,  and  offered 
to  the  sight  of  wise  men  and  shepherds,  and  all 
are  taught  by  this  spectacle  that  God  is  meek  and 
gentle,  pure  and  holy,  whose  Kingdom  is  the  king- 
dom of  Love.  Christ  was  in  all  His  ministry 
the  Revelation  of  the  Father,  but  He  was  that  as 
well  in  infancy. 

Why  could  not  this  Divine  Child  have  saved 
those  babes  who  died  for  Him  by  Herod's  sword? 
He  did  save  them.  He  had  given  them  life,  a 
life  most  brief  because  of  Herod's  guile,  and  then 
an  entrance  into  eternal  life,  perhaps  as  uncon- 
scious at  first  as  their  entrance  into  this  life,  per- 
haps not  more  painful.  One  cry,  and  then  came 
life  for  ever  with  the  Child  of  Bethlehem. 

As  God  is,  so  must  we  be.  We  must  never 
outgrow  our  childhood  in  God.  [N'o  man,  however 
so  old,  can  really  be  old  in  God's  sight.  May  we 
pray  that  the  wisdom  of  this  world,  the  hardness 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  273 

of  life's  experiences,  may  never  prevent  our  child- 
like attitude  toward  our  Heavenly  Father. 

And  in  all  our  work  for  God  and  men,  whether 
it  seem  to  be  our  work  alone,  or  work  in  the  unity 
of  the  Church,  may  we  never  forget  the  power  of 
gentleness.  May  we  realize  that  regeneration 
must  precede  everything  in  the  spiritual  life,  that 
no  amount  of  apparent  success  amounts  to  any- 
thing without  love,  that  there  is  no  failure  if  there 
be  love,  that  true  love  will  keep  us  innocent,  that 
gentleness  is  the  method  of  power.  ''Thy  gentle- 
ness that  made  me  great." 

What  is  it  that  the  world  really  wants?  Is 
there  anything  lacking  that  cannot  be  spiritually 
expressed?  Do  we  not  desire  to  know  that  our 
happiness  and  life  are  dear  to  Him  who  made  us, 
that  He  always  will  send  us  peace,  if  we  are  men 
of  good  will  ? 

The  true  relations  of  family  life  are  to  us  not 
only  a  great  blessing,  but  full  of  instruction.  Our 
part  in  them  is  far  from  perfect.  Our  fatherhood 
sinful  and  incomplete.  Even  in  pious  Mary, 
Jesus  had  something  to  forgive.  One  may  some- 
times think  our  children  are  more  forgiving  than 
we  are.  May  God  show  us  all,  by  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  Babe  of  Bethlehem,  the  conditions  of 
holy  family  life.  And  looking  upon  children  as 
His  special  Christmas  representatives,   especially 


274  HUMAN  QUESl^IONS 

poor  children  who  find  little  room  or  a  poor  wel- 
come here,  let  us  strive  to  make  the  Saviour  wel- 
come, and  rejoice  as  He  does  in  the  happiness  of 
the  tender,  innocent,  and  young. 


CONSECRATION 

That  Thine  eyes  may  he  open  toward  this  house 
day  and  night,  even  toward  the  place  of  which  Thou 
hast  said,  My  Name  shall  he  there. — 1  Kings  8 :  29. 

HEEE  are  two  services  in  our  Prayer 
Book  called  services  of  Consecration: 
the  Consecration  of  a  Bishop,  and  the 
Consecration  of  a  Church  building. 
Another  service,  the  Office  for  the  Holy  Commun- 
ion, contains  a  Prayer  of  Consecration,  without 
which  a  priest  never  attempts  to  celebrate  the 
Blessed  Sacrament.  These  are  the  most  authori- 
tative documents  from  which  to  see  what  is  meant 
in  this  Church  by  the  word  Consecration. 

In  the  order  in  which  these  services  occur  in 
the  Prayer  Book,  we  find  ourselves  naturally  most 
familiar  with  the  service  for  the  Holy  Communion, 
which  is  for  everybody  to  look  forward  to;  for  no 
penitent  person  is  excluded.  Whereas,  one  may 
well  live  a  long  life  without  ever  seeing  a  Bishop 


276  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

consecrated,  or  a  church  thus  set  apart  more  than 
once  or  twice. 

In  the  Office  for  the  Holy  Communion,  we 
first  set  apart  bread  and  wine  which,  although  we 
may  have  labored  to  make  or  earn  them,  we  recog- 
nize and  acknowledge  to  be  the  gifts  of  God,  and 
place  them  on  the  altar  as  an  offering  at  the  same 
time  with  the  other  gifts  which  we  dedicate  to 
God,  and  His  service.  Once  offered,  these  ele- 
ments no  longer  belong  to  us,  except  to  use  in 
accordance  with  the  Divine  institution.  Accord- 
ing to  our  Lord's  o^vn  saying,  "The  altar  sanctifies 
the  gift."  That  is  to  say,  the  altar  is  God's:  it, 
in  some  way,  signifies  His  Presence,  His  ^ame, 
and  His  right.  With  an  invisible  God,  the  Xame 
becomes  the  most  important  symbol,  and  an  object 
like  the  altar,  which  assumes  to  be  no  image  or 
likeness  of  anything,  is  a  constant  reminder  of 
God's  Presence  and  claims,  and  presses  home  Sacri- 
fice to  our  souls  every  time  we  behold  it. 

After  we  have  presented  the  Bread  and  Wine, 
and  have  endeavored  to  prepare  ourselves  by  con- 
fession, absolution,  prayer,  and  praise,  for  the 
great  Act  which  is  to  follow,  we,  through  the  ap- 
pointed minister  of  the  Sacrament,  say  the  Prayer 
of  Consecration,  by  means  of  the  recital  of  our 
Lord's  wo-ids  of  Institution,  identifying  this  Bread 
and  Wine  with  all  His  ineffable  sacramental  pur- 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  277 

poses,  and  putting  them  ministerially  outside  the 
category  of  common  things.  And  we  further  in- 
voke over  them  the  benediction  of  Almighty  God, 
that  they  may  become  to  us  all  that  our  Saviour 
intended,  and  communicate  us  in  His  own  way 
with  His  Body  and  Blood,  and  make  us  fully  par- 
taker of  all  those  good  things  which  He  obtained 
for  us  through  His  Passion. 

After  this  is  done,  we  never  permit  any  portion 
of  what  has  been  thus  set  apart,  and  blessed,  to  go 
back  to  ordinary  uses.  As  far  as  we  can,  we  have, 
by  God's  assistance,  fixed  its  condition  as  Holy. 
It  is  reverently  distributed,  reverently  consumed, 
any  portion  remaining  reverently  replaced  upon  the 
altar  until  the  conclusion  of  the  service,  and  then 
reverently  consumed,  not  as  a  new  sacrament,  but 
as  a  conclusion  to  what  has  been  done,  that  no  pos- 
sibility of  irreverent  treatment  of  a  consecrated 
Thing  may  cloud  the  rite  and  its  fulfilment. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  emphasize  any  particular 
theory  of  the  Holy  Communion  in  order  to  make 
clear  the  Church's  mind  as  to  what  she  means  in 
this  Consecration.  Things  are  what  they  are  be- 
cause God  made  them  so.  We  do  not  make  them 
better,  or  worse,  by  anything  we  personally  do,  or 
attempt.  But  they  are  always  in  their  Creator's 
power.  He  is  the  Eeal  Consecrator,  and  our  part 
in  it  is  through  obedience  and  prayer,  prayer  which 


278  HUMAN   QUESTIONS    AND 

has  the  promises.  The  two  chief  steps  are  the  sep- 
aration, and  the  special  hallowing  through  Divine 
Benediction,  which  adds  whatever  sacred  proper- 
ties as  may  be  necessary  for  the  rite. 

In  the  Consecration  of  a  Bishop,  both  these 
ideas  are  plainly  to  be  seen.  The  man  designed 
for  the  office  has  been  long  separated  from  the  com- 
mon life  of  men.  His  occupation,  responsibilities, 
means  of  support,  all  indicate  separation.  His 
amusements  are  curtailed,  even  among  innocent 
things.  He  must  be  good,  do  good,  and  not  let  his 
good  be  evil-spoken  of.  He  must  ''avoid  the  ap- 
pearance of  evil,"  as  well  as  the  evil.  Xot  that 
he  does  not  touch  the  common  lot  as  few  others 
can ;  for  the  common  lot  is  sorrow,  and  he  is  dedi- 
cated to  sympathy  as  much  as  to  truth ;  but  no  one 
can  deny  that  the  ministerial  life  is  a  separate  one, 
and  that  through  its  separation  comes  much  of  its 
power. 

Then  he  has  been  gradually  admitted,  by  steps 
or  degrees  to  certain  uncommon  functions,  which 
he  exercises  not  by  his  own  mind  or  invention,  not 
for  his  own  purposes,  but  strictly  according  to  the 
terms  of  his  commission.  And  these  things  are 
such  that  it  seems  impossible  to  say  whether  they 
would  have  any  validity  if  voluntarily  performed, 
without  the  special  commission  which  the  Church 
is  empowered  by  her  Founder  to  continue  and  per- 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  279 

petuate.  The  question  will  remain  no  matter 
which  side  of  it  we  prefer  to  espouse.  The  safe 
position  is  the  historic  one. 

And  hence  it  has  been  always  believed  that  the 
man  who  is  ordained  is  not  only  separated  and 
limited,  but  something  is  done  to  him  which  is 
indelible,  and  cannot  be  undone.  This  is  some- 
times called  The  Grace  of  Orders.  It  means  on 
one  side  that  God  powerfully  acts  with  His  min- 
ister to  validate  his  functions,  and  to  sustain  his 
words  and  deeds,  so  far  as  true  to  the  Divine  will ; 
but  further  this,  that  every  right  act,  to  govern,  to 
administer,  being  also  a  burden  and  a  care — and 
this  more  than  ever  in  Divine  things — God  will 
give  every  one  of  His  faithful  ministers  all  the 
grace  and  help  they  need  to  be  better  men,  in  spite 
of  their  added  temptations  and  difficulties,  more 
than  if  they  had  failed  to  heed  their  higher  calling. 
Of  necessity,  the  minister  of  Christ  has  to  try  to  do 
many  things  which  others  may  not  think  of  doing : 
he  has  to  aim  high;  and  he  runs,  humanly  speak- 
ing, more  chance  of  failure  in  his  ideals,  or  from 
his  ideals,  than  the  man  who  seeks  no  more  than 
respectable  performance. 

But  God  helps  those  whom  He  calls.  ]^ot  that 
they  do  not  fail  sometimes,  but  God  does  not  fail 
them.  His  word  to  them  is  the  same  as  that 
spoken  to  encourage  Moses:    '^Certainly  I  will  be 


280  HUxMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

with  thee."  The  minister  of  Christ  must  remain 
human,  very  human,  but  he  must  enter,  as  God 
would  have  him,  into  the  capabilities  and  charac- 
ter of  a  new  world  and  a  new  man. 

And  then  the  service  for  the  Consecration  of  a 
Church.  Still  we  have  the  idea  of  separation.  We 
are  setting  something  apart  which,  architecturally, 
indeed,  is  not  fitted  for  any  or  many  other  pur- 
poses than  that  which  we  intend,  but  could  be 
changed  or  modified,  and  so  applied.  Though  in 
material  it  is  the  usual  building  of  the  region,  we 
have  remembered  God  and  eternity,  and  have  sep- 
arated it.  It  is  not  for  every  innocent  use,  if 
common.  It  is  separate,  and  belongs  to  God  and 
the  soul,  to  the  truth  and  its  proclamation.  It  is 
no  longer  ours  to  do  as  we  please  with  it — it  is 
ours,  however,  as  the  children  of  God,  a  place  in 
which  to  meet  Our  Father.  Whatever  change  may 
be  connected  with  the  thought  of  consecration  fol- 
lowing this  separation,  we  do  not  think  of  it  as 
mysterious,  as  in  the  case  of  a  sacrament,  or  a 
person.  But  there  is  this  change:  we  can  never 
escape  from  the  force  of  association,  more  espe- 
cially if  this  association  be  personal,  and,  most 
of  all,  if  the  association  call  up  something  Divine. 

"The  altar  sanctifies  the  gift."  Your  mother's 
picture  is  just  so  much  paper  with  the  sun's  handi- 
work thereon,  or  canvas  and  oil,  and  the  artist's 


DIVINE   ANSWEES  281 

success.  But  it  is  more  to  you  than  to  the  man 
who  painted  it.     It  is  in  a  manner  holy. 

Go  in  thought  to  a  mother's  treasure-house, 
and  see  the  baby's  shoe,  the  lock  of  fair  hair,  the 
things  intrinsically  worthless  but,  to  her,  priceless ; 
it  is  what  remains  to  quicken  the  pulse,  and  bring 
back  the  memory  and  form  of  those  gone,  but  not 
forgotten. 

Round  an  old  consecrated  church  cluster  mem- 
ories of  sacraments  and  warnings,  experiences  of 
penitence  and  hope,  vows  to  God  and  vows  to  man, 
love,  tenderness,  and  aspiration. 

Visible  memorials  are  there  in  stone,  brass,  or 
storied  pane;  sacred  emblems  of  the  passion  and 
victory  of  Christ.  The  names  of  old  and  new 
saints  are  there  displayed,  or  easily  recalled.  But 
chiefly,  there  is  the  thought,  This  is  my  Father's 
house.  His  ^ame  is  there.  His  mysterious  Pres- 
ence is  there.  'Not  that  we  can  ever  be  absent 
from  Him,  but  He  does,  in  special  ways,  put  Him- 
self before  us,  and  make  places  sacred  to  His  wor- 
ship and  revelation.  And  where  He  is  specially 
thought  of  as  present,  there  also  is  the  thought  of 
Him,  not  as  alone  in  a  distant  universe,  but  as 
surrounded  by  His  *^ ^ministering  spirits,"  "the 
armies  of  heaven,"  the  priests  of  His  inner  sanc- 
tuary, as  represented  to  us  in  St.  John's  Reve- 
lation. 


282  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

^The  Lord  is  in  His  Holy  Temple."  I  know 
that  means  primarily  more  than  appears.  Had 
man  erected  no  temple,  still  it  would  be  true.  His 
character  is  temple  enough.  Where  He  is  realized, 
no  visible  fabric  is  needed  or  much  heeded.  But 
it  is,  nevertheless,  true  here.  Let  us  keep  silence. 
Let  the  world  be  hushed.  Let  not  passion  speak, 
or  worldly  wisdom  raise  its  voice.  Let  God  speak 
to  us,  and  then  let  what  we  say  be  the  words  of 
penitence,  worship,  and  love,  few  words,  but  sin- 
cere; the  words  which  our  Mother  has  taught  us 
to  say,  when  we  meet  our  Heavenly  Father. 

^'Mj  Name  shall  be  there."  Father,  Saviour, 
Divine  Helper,  Jesus  Christ,  sanctify  Thy  Name 
in  us.  Save  us  from  every  thought  which  may 
dim  in  our  minds  the  lustre  of  Thy  Presence.  Be 
Thou  a  hiding  place  for  us.  May  the  church  be 
ever  a  shelter  where  we  may  find  Thee,  the  answer 
to  our  prayers,  and  the  assurance  of  Thy  love. 
Grant  that  men  may  love  it,  seek  it,  and  find  the 
door  as  open  as  Thy  mercy. 

May  we  emulate  Thy  Great  High  Priest,  Thy 
Son,  our  Saviour,  who  was  Holy,  Harmless,  Un- 
defiled,  and  Separate  from  sinners.  Help  us  to 
be  separated  from  sin ;  then  consecrate  us,  O  God, 
in  time,  for  eternity,  to  dwell  forever  in  Thy  Holy 
Temple. 


THE  LORD'S  PRAYER 

HE  literary  perfection  of  the  Prayer 
Book  services  has  its  drawbacks.  We 
are  insensibly  tempted  to  dwell  too 
much  on  the  outward  form.  And 
then,  our  familiarity  with  the  beautiful  phrases 
is  apt  to  carry  us  along  faster  than  we  really  ought 
to  go,  in  order  really  to  work  through  the  service. 
Tor,  of  course,  every  time  you  repeat  the  prayers 
of  the  Church,  you  are  supposed  to  be,  not  only 
worshipping,  but  working.  For  this  reason  we 
ought  to  go  to  our  prayers  with  as  much  self-recol- 
lectedness  as  a  machinist  beginning  to  operate  his 
machine.  He  knows  that  the  thing  is  not  only 
serviceable,  but  dangerous.  His  mind  has  to  be 
on  his  lathe,  and  the  work  in  it,  or  it  may  be 
spoiled  in  an  instant.  And  he  has  to  spend,  from 
time  to  time,  considerable  work  on  the  tool  itself, 
to  keep  it  in  order,  to  correct  its  adjustment,  to  get, 
as  we  say,  ^^the  hang  of  it"  so  perfectly,  that  it 


284  HUMAN    QUESTIONS   AND 

will  work  for  him  like  an  extension  of  his  own  will 
into  a  longer  arm,  with  more  delicate  skill. 

The  most  perfect  thing  we  have  in  the  service 
is  the  Lord's  Prayer.  It  is  just  possible  that  you 
do  not  think  so,  that  is,  you  do  not  really  think 
so,  but  you  know  you  ought  to.  And  you  would 
hardly  dare  admit  that  you  have  lost  some  appre- 
ciation of  it,  because  it  would  make  you  seem  to 
yourself  unorthodox.  In  other  things  we  often 
have  our  off  days,  when  we  are  dissatisfied  with 
ourselves;  so,  it  is  not  surprising  if,  in  our  re- 
ligious life  we  sometimes  have  to  recognize  that 
there  is  something  wrong  with  our  taste  or  feeling. 

If  the  Lord's  Prayer  has  become  less  to  us 
than  it  ought  to  be,  is  there  anything  we  can  do  ? 
Do  we  need  to  go  to  a  doctor  for  the  spiritual  dul- 
ness  from  which  we  are  suffering?  Xo,  the 
remedy  is  right  in  our  own  hands.  All  it  needs  is 
a  little  time,  a  little  thought,  a  little  concentration, 
a  little  reverential  composure  of  the  spirit  to  the 
purposes  of  prayer. 

The  prayer  has  suffered,  not  more  from  its 
rapid  rendition  in  public  worship  but  from  its 
almost  universal  use,  at  least  by  our  Church  people, 
in  their  private  prayers,  which  are  apt  to  be  hur- 
ried and  made  as  short  as  possible,  and  just 
handled  the  way  a  conductor  punches  a  com- 
muter's   ticket.      We    are    apt    to    be    prejudiced 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  2«5 

against  the  rosary,  just  because  Roman  Catholics 
use  it;  but  really,  we  fall  into  exactly  the  same 
false  way  of  praying  as  may  go  with  telling  the 
beads,  only  with  us  there  is  a  good  deal  more 
room  between  the  beads. 

'Now  for  our  simple  remedies.  First,  stop  and 
say.  What  is  this  that  I  am  trying  to  do?  This 
is  Prayer,  an  attempt  to  come  into  Communion 
with  God.  Therefore,  I  must  not  try  to  read  a 
book  and  listen  to  a  lecture  at  the  same  time.  I 
therefore  need  detachment,  except  that  I  ought  to 
think,  first,  not  only  of  prayer  in  general,  and  of 
the  Person  whom  I  am  approaching,  but  specially 
ivhy  I  am  coming  to-day. 

Then  next,  this  prayer  is  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
It  is  given  as  the  perfect  model.  The  separate 
petitions  are  complete  in  themselves.  They  are 
like  chapter  headings  under  which  we  may,  if  we 
have  time,  group  our  special  needs.  The}^  are, 
further,  a  restraint  to  keep  us  from  wild  thoughts 
and  desires ;  for  there  are  many  things  we  have 
no  right  to  ask  for.  And  many  of  the  difiiculties 
that  men  find  in  believing  in  prayer  come  from 
not  recognizing  its  limitations.  Christian  prayer 
is  more  powerful  because  of  these  limitations. 

Then  take  the  prayer  slowly,  petition  by  peti- 
tion, and  see  what  it  means  to  you,  and  afterward 
put  it  together   again   in   different   combinations. 


286  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

You  know  what  a  kaleidoscope  is.  And  you  know 
that  it  gives  you  many  combinations  of  the  same 
materials,  and  it  is  difficult  to  say  which  is  the 
most  beautiful.  But  the  things  wouldn't  combine 
at  all  unless  they  were  perfect  in  detail.  This  is 
something  like  the  Lord's  Prayer. 

In  Dean  Stanley's  last  days  somebody  asked 
him  about  prayer,  and  he  replied  that  he  had 
almost  stopped  saying  any  prayer  but  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  going  over  it  very  slowly,  petition  by 
petition.  And  this  illustrates  the  fact  that  even 
advanced  and  proficient  persons  in  any  walk  of 
life  have  to  stop  from  time  to  time,  and  go  back 
to  first  principles.  First  principles  contain  every- 
thing else. 

These  words  are  not  intended  to  supply  you 
with  the  thought  that  might  properly  come  with 
meditative  use  of  each  petition.  Some  of  the 
benefit  would  be  lost  if  the  thinking  should  be  done 
in  advance  for  you.  But  if,  at  first,  the  result 
seems  barren,  try  reading  over  a  psalm,  a  canticle, 
an  epistle  or  gospel  from  the  Prayer  Book,  and 
then  see  how  much  easier  it  is  to  say  the  Lord's 
Prayer. 

Then  comes  putting  the  petitions  together 
again,  and  perhaps  we  can  give  here  a  few  of  the 
results  of  our  kaleidoscope.  It  will  perhaps  yield 
other  beautiful  results  to  our  own  mental  revolving 


DIVINE   ANSWERS  287 

of  the  careful  words  of  our  Lord.  The  method,  or 
something  like  it,  was  used  ofttimes  in  the  mo- 
nastic services,  before  the  Keformation.  They 
would  take  a  part  of  the  psalm  they  were  singing, 
or  of  some  other  psalm,  and  use  it  as  a  refrain  all 
through,  after  every  verse.  It  often  made  things 
very  much  more  beautiful.  They  called  it  ^^farc- 
ing,"  a  word  that  now  is  only  used  in  cookery,  and 
means  a  sort  of  stuffing,  or  dressing. 

Begin  then  with  the  idea  of  Fatherhood  as 
the  controlling  thought.  Using  it  as  a  sort  of  re- 
frain, the  Lord's  Prayer  would  go  something  like 
this:  Our  Father,  Who  art  in  Heaven  (^'My 
Father's  House  has  many  mansions").  Hallowed 
be  Thy  ^N'ame  (the  Father's  I^ame ;  "Holy  Father, 
Great  Creator").  Thy  Kingdom  come  (the 
Father's  Kingdom) ;  Thy  Will  be  done  (the 
Father's  Will),  on  earth  as  it  is  in  Heaven  (by 
the  children  as  well  as  by  the  angels).  Give  us 
this  day  our  daily  bread  (the  children's  bread)  ; 
and  forgive  us  our  trespasses  (Thy  children's  tres- 
passes), as  we  forgive  those  who  trespass  against 
us  (for  they  are  our  brothers  and  our  flesh).  And 
lead  us  not  into  temptation  (Carry  us.  Father, 
rather  than  lead  us  over  the  rough  places),  but 
deliver  us  from  evil  (Thy  children  fly  to  Thee). 
For  Thine  is  the  kingdom  (the  Father's  King- 
dom), the  power   (the  Father's  power),  and  the 


288  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

glory  (the  Father's  glory),  for  ever  and  ever 
(Father  Eternal!).  Amen.  'The  [N'ame  of  the 
Lord  is  a  strong  tower:  the  righteous  fleeth  unto 
it  and  is  safe." 

Or,  use  the  first  petition  as  the  controlling 
thought,  Hallowed  be  Thy  Name.  Then  think 
God's  N'ame  is  hallowed  by  the  doing  of  His  will. 
"Do  all  for  the  glory  of  God."  God's  Xame  is 
hallowed  in  giving  us  our  daily  bread ;  His  merci- 
ful Providence  is  part  of  His  glory.  God's  Xame 
is  hallowed  by  the  Victory  over  Temptation,  in  the 
Triumph  of  Kighteousness.  "With  His  own  right 
hand  and  with  His  Holy  Arm  hath  He  gotten 
Himself  the  victory." 

Or,  lastly,  take  the  Will  of  God  as  a  text.  We 
are  too  apt  to  think  of  resignation  to  the  Will  of 
God  as  implying  that  it  provides  for  us  nothing 
but  discipline.    Charlotte  Elliott's  beautiful  hymn, 

"My  God,  my  Father,  while  I  stray 
Far  from  my  home  on  life's  rough  way," 

is  an  invalid's  hymn.  We  could  suggest  other 
verses  for  a  more  cheerful,  full  and  true  view  of 
life: 

1  My  God,  my  Father,  by  Thy  Will 

Green  wave  the  groves  on  yonder  hill ; 
The  stars  Thy  heavenly  Law  fulfil: 
Thy  Will  be  done. 


DIVINE  ANSWERS 

2  My  God,  my  Father,  we  confess 
Before  the  world  Thy  holiness; 
With  inward  grace  Thy  children  bless: 

Thy  Will  be  done. 

3  My  God,  my  Father,  daily  bread 
Before  Thy  waiting  world  is  spread. 

'Tis  by  Thy  Will  that  we  are  fed; 
Thy  Will  be  done. 

6  My  God,  my  Father,  mercy,  too. 
Comes  every  morning,  fresh  and  new. 
Thou  dost  forgive  the  wrongs  we  do : 

Thy  Will  be  done. 

7  My  God,  my  Father,  in  the  field 

Where  danger  lurks,  Thou  art  our  Shield. 
Praise  we  the  Will  our  souls  hath  healed; 
Thy  Will  be  done. 

8  My  God,  my  Father,  Thou  our  King, 
Thy  power.  Thy  glory  now  we  sing. 
Come,  and  Thy  blessed  Kingdom  bring. 

Thy  Will  be  done. 


wSSl    rani 

^!3  @^ 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

"The  same  which  God  spake  in  the  twentieth  chap- 
ter of  Exodus." 

T  is  sometimes  said,  nowadays,  that 
we  make  a  mistake  in  reading  the 
Mosaic  Law  in  Church,  or  in  looking 
upon  it  as  a  proper  and  useful  part 
of  the  Catechism.  This  objection  is  made  on  some- 
what technical  grounds,  by  people  who  recognize 
that  we  are  the  better  for  having  good  laws,  and 
knowing  about  them;  but  they  think  that  the 
Mosaic  Law  is  antiquated,  and  has  outlived  its 
authority.  Now  the  way  in  which  we  use  the 
Mosaic  Law  in  our  system  is  answer  enough  to 
these  objections.  We  do  not  use  it  by  itself,  but 
with  a  very  clear  Christian  construction,  indeed, 
with  the  very  words  of  Christ  Himself  about  the 
older  Law  added  to  the  recital  of  that  Law. 

We  make  it,  I  think,  very  clear  that  we  put 
a  completely  Christian  construction  upon  what  we 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  291 

recite,  and  that,  apart  from  the  Christian  con- 
struction, we  would  not  use  the  commandments  as 
we  do. 

The  N^ew  Testament  is  full  of  applications, 
explanations,  and  paraphrases  of  the  older  Law. 
The  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  many  other  teach- 
ings of  our  Lord  and  His  apostles,  might  be  quoted. 

There  is  just  one  point,  however,  about  the 
way  in  which  the  Prayer  Book  refers  to  the 
original  authority  of  the  commandments,  which 
needs  some  comment.  That  is,  we  continue  there 
to  claim  that  these  commandments  really  came 
from  God,  and  at  the  time  they  were  said  to  have 
come  from  Him.  This  does  not  mean  that  they 
had  no  authority  before  they  were  published 
at  the  time  of  the  Exodus.  They  had,  at  least 
some  of  them,  almost  universal  authority.  But  it 
was,  to  speak  reverently,  necessary  that  they 
should  be  republished  as  a  system  in  connection 
with  Jehovah's  claim  to  be  the  absolute  Lord  of 
Righteousness.  Religion  and  Morality  are  not  in 
any  of  the  old  religions  connected  with  the  same 
closeness  as  they  are  in  the  religion  of  the  Israel- 
itish  people.  In  other  words,  it  is  a  great  discov- 
ery that  the  duty  towards  God  and  the  duty  to- 
wards the  neighbor  are  two  tables  of  the  same  Law. 

In  the  descriptions  of  the  giving  of  the  Law 
which  we  read  in  Exodus,  there  is  a  halo  of  glory 


292  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

and  mystery  about  the  whole  story.  The  two 
tables  are  said  to  have  been  written  with  ^'the 
Finger  of  God."  Whatever  I  believed  about  this 
in  my  early  studies,  I  should  now  say  that  this 
statement  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  man  had 
no  hand  in  the  preparation  of  these  tables.  They 
were,  at  least,  brought  to  light  by  Moses.  They 
were  in  his  hands  when  first  seen.  His  employ- 
ment to  do  the  luriting  would  not  anymore  con- 
tradict the  Divine  authorship,  than  his  employ- 
ment to  bring  out  the  tables  to  public  view.  In- 
deed, our  Lord  furnishes  us  a  valuable  com- 
mentary on  the  words,  ^'The  Finger  of  God,"  by 
using  them  in  controversy  with  the  Pharisees  as  a 
name  for  the  Spirit  of  God.  Hence,  to  say  a 
thing  was  done  by  the  ^'Finger  of  God,"  is  no  more 
than  saying  that  it  was  done  by  Divine  inspiration 
or  Divine  authority. 

The  universal  conscience  at  any  rate  endorses 
this  ancient  law.  though  it  certainly  did  need  the 
illumination  which  Christ  threw  upon  it. 

The  improper  use  of  the  ten  commandments 
overlooks  that  they  were  accompanied,  at  the  time 
they  were  given,  by  a  large  amount  of  other  legis- 
lation which  enforced,  illusiraied,  and  explained 
them.  In  every  age  and  community  they  have  to 
be  enforced,  illustrated,  and  explained,  and  their 
spirit  made  clear  as  against  a  too  literal  reception 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  293 

of  them :  not  that  in  speaking  of  them  as  sometimes 
taken  too  literally  we  would  justify  in  any  sense 
their  rejection.  Liter alness  makes  for  a  more 
limited  and  restricted  reception  than  does  spir- 
ituality. ^^Thou  shalt  not  kill/'  taken  with  ab- 
solute literalness  would  not  exclude  any  bodily 
injury  less  than  killing;  "Thou  shalt  not  steal/' 
would  not  include  certain  kinds  of  artistic  fraud, 
where  the  personal  responsibility  is  concealed  al- 
most from  the  worker  of  it. 

Every  age,  therefore,  has  a  right  and  is  even 
bound,  to  put  its  commandments  into  such  other 
form,  not  less  explicit  than  the  ten  words,  as  will 
make  the  spirit  of  the  law  perfectly  plain.  Christ 
turned  the  ten  words  into  tiuo,  which  enormously 
extended  their  range.  St.  John  says  about  the 
same  in  his  gospel,  where  he  records  that  our  Lord 
gave  an  eleventh  commandment,  just  like  the  two 
in  scope.  There  is  an  interesting  story  in  one  of 
Gilbert  Parker's  tales,  where  the  French  Half 
Breed,  Pretty  Pierre,  says  he  has  just  three  neces- 
sary principles:  "Thou  shalt  keep  the  faith  of 
food  and  blanket,"  "Thou  shalt  judge  with  the 
mind  of  ten  men  and  the  heart  of  one  woman," 
"Thou  shalt  pity  the  sorrows  of  thine  own  wife." 
I  do  not  say  that  these  exhaust  the  real  law.  They 
cannot,  for  they  are  the  code  of  an  undisciplined 
and  self-willed  man,  but  they  make  not  nearly  so 


294  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

meager  a  set  of  principles  as  is  implied  by  being 
only  three.  A  man  who  would  thoroughly  and 
thoughtfully  live  up  to  them,  would  probably  live 
up  to  more  good  principles  than  he  set  out  to  hold ; 
for  all  these  three  are  kindly  and  wise. 

But  the  burning  need  is  that  we  should  never 
yield  to  the  temptation  to  make  duty  less  broad 
than  it  is;  that  we  should  never  refuse  to  advance 
to  meet  it  as  it  enlarges.  For  duty  does  unques- 
tionably enlarge,  as  we  live  our  life,  and  learn  of 
love  and  what  love  really  is.  The  love  of  a  child 
is  not  the  love  of  a  man.  The  love  of  a  lover  is 
not  the  love  of  a  husband  or  a  father,  and  neither 
one  is  that  of  a  woman.  And  the  love  of  a  Chris- 
tian father  is  different  from  what  it  would  be  if 
he  were  not  a  Christian,  supposing  his  Christianity 
to  be  real  to  the  point  of  sacrifice.  We  can  get 
almost  too  familiar  with  our  formularies.  The 
Lord's  Prayer  is  the  most  perfect  prayer,  and  the 
most  misused  prayer,  I  had  almost  said  the  most 
unused  prayer,  for  it  is  said  over  thousands  of 
times  without  any  movement  of  the  heart  or  will. 
Yes,  a  man  will  say  it,  and  then,  because  he  can 
not  remember  whether  he  has  said  it  or  not,  will 
say  it  over  again.  This  is  one  reason  why  we 
ought  to  be  careful  not  to  say  our  ]^iil)lic  service 
too  fast. 

And  this  is  why  it  does  us  good  to  try  to  put 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  295 

the  commandments  in  other  words,  for  fear  we 
should  get  to  thinking  that  we  had  really  perfectly 
kept  them.  The  rich  young  man,  whom  our 
Saviour  is  said  to  have  loved,  thought  he  had  kept 
them,  and  was  made  to  see  what  he  really  was,  by 
our  Lord  requiring  of  him  complete  charity  and 
faith  enough  to  make  a  perfect  surrender  of  his 
life.  If  God's  law  means  anything,  it  cannot 
possibly  mean  less  than  perfect  charity  and  com- 
plete surrender.  Christ  Himself  made  the  com- 
plete surrender,  and  is  the  Image  of  Perfect  Love 
Himself.  If  we  are  to  keep  His  Law,  we  recognize 
that  His  precepts  must  have  really  the  same  mean- 
ing with  His  character.  Or  else,  in  a  sense,  He 
could  be  said  to  deny  Himself. 

Thus,  not  to  take  up  too  much  time,  if  we 
begin  with  faith  enough,  which  brings  insight,  we 
will  see  that  the  First  Commandment  is  not  more 
directed  toward  preserving  the  idea  of  the  Divine 
Unity  than  it  is  toward  making  us  really  devout, 
that  is,  devoted  to  the  service  of  God.  To  have  a 
God  means  that  we  really  do  nothing  without  God 
and  the  remembrance  of  Who  and  What  He  is, 
and  what  His  character  demands  of  us,  who  are 
made  in  His  Image  and  Likeness. 

And  Taking  God's  l^ame  in  vain  is  not  con- 
fined to  any  particular  ITame  which  we  are  ac- 
customed to  use  for  Him,  but  extends  to  the  whole, 


296  HUMAN    QUESTIONS    AND 

question  of  reverence  about  holy  things.  Many 
people  are  desperately  irreverent  who  have  in- 
vented a  new  terminology  in  order  to  he  irreverent, 
and  not  break,  as  they  think,  the  third  command- 
ment. But  you  can't  be  irreverent  and  not  break 
it.  That  is  what  it  is  meant  to  prevent.  And 
irreverence  is  an  awful  injustice  to  one's  self, 
because  an  irreverent  man  has  destroyed  his  capac- 
ity for  approaching  God.  And  he  has  also 
destroyed  in  some  degree  the  capacity  of  those 
other  people  whom  he  has  made  the  hearers  of 
his  foolishness. 

And  a  man  who  never  saw  a  heathen  idol,  and 
has  not  enough  mechanical  ability  to  make  a 
graven  image,  can  be  an  idolater  by  simply  falling 
in  love  with  things,  rather  than  God,  refusing  to 
look  up  and  consecrate  the  good  things,  which  God 
has  given  him,  to  his  heavenly  Father.  You  see 
this  goes  very  deep. 

And  the  Fourth  Commandment  goes  a  good 
deal  deeper  than  just  the  Sunday  question.  The 
Sunday  question  can  never  be  settled  by  itself 
alone.  It  involves  the  whole  purpose  of  industry, 
the  whole  business  of  the  responsible  care  of  our 
time.  The  man  who  lives  an  idle,  fruitless  life, 
cannot  keep  it,  though  he  goes  to  Church  twice 
every  Lord's  day.  The  meaning  of  this  command- 
ment, no  less  than  the  second,  is  consecration.     If 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  297 

there  be  no  consecration,  we  cannot  keep  this  law. 
And  unless  we  render  responsible  account  of  our 
whole  time,  as  well  as  of  our  Sundays,  we  have 
not  kept  it.  There  is  no  selfish  answer  to  this. 
And  until  we  love  to  serve  God  we  cannot  find  the 
answer.  The  Love  of  God  changes  everything. 
And  note,  that  the  commandment  puts  a  com- 
pletely unselfish  view  uppermost:  It  talks  about 
servants,  and  strangers,  and  dumb  beasts,  as  hav- 
ing their  right  to  rest.  Depend  upon  it,  that  the 
present  organization  of  manufacturing  and  com- 
merce needs  to  be  changed  before  our  country  can 
always  be  sure  of  a  blessing  upon  her  civilization, 
or  uncivilization,  just  as  you  please  to  call  it. 

In  other  words,  you  have  really  to  have  a  God 
before  you  can  keep  the  first  table  of  the  law.  To 
have  God  so  that  He  is  more  real,  important, 
necessary,  than  anything  else  you  can  think  of. 
Or  else,  though  He  is  God,  he  isn't  your  God,  and 
your  religion  is  just  a  veneer  that  will  come  off 
when  it  is  scratched. 

And  so  the  Fifth  Commandment  goes  into  the 
region  of  self-sacrificing  love  for  your  parents,  the 
Church,  the  country,  the  government.  It  is  a 
virtue  which,  if  anyone  is,  is  its  own  reward.  It 
certainly  makes  good  days  and  happy  homes,  and, 
without  these,  what  is  life  ? 

And  the  Sixth  Commandment  is  the  law  of 


298  HUMAN   QUESTIONS   AND 

perfect  kindness,  meekness,  and  gentleness;  and 
the  Seventh  means  that  you  must  be  pure  and  clean 
in  thought,  word,  and  deed,  that  you  must  re- 
member that  the  body  is  given  you,  not  to  rule  but 
to  be  ruled,  raised,  and  sanctified,  and  to  become 
the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

You  must  not  play  with  unclean  things  even 
in  your  heart,  and  then  think  that  you  can  easily 
raise  the  heart  again  to  God.  You  see  how  large 
it  is.     But  we  say  most  perhaps  by  saying  least. 

And  honesty,  too,  is  the  law  of  kindness.  So 
is  our  view  of  the  Eighth  Commandment.  The 
great  reason  for  work  is  that  we  may  have  some- 
thing to  give  away.  We  must  be  honest,  we  must 
tell  the  truth,  because  truth  and  honesty  are  kind, 
because  we  are  all  brethren,  God's  children.  The 
Law  is  not  nearly  so  great  as  the  Eeason  for  the 
Law.  That  reason  is  the  Divine  love  and  the 
Divine  kindness. 

And  so,  we  see  that  this  is  meant  to  be  a  kind 
world,  and  everyone  to  have  love  and  blessing  in 
his  measure.  Covetousness  is  idolatry,  and  very 
debasing;  but  it  is  also  unkind,  and  it  dwarfs  the 
soul  and  blinds  to  the  true  beauty,  goodness,  and 
love,  which  are  already  ours. 

Take  now,  slowly,  the  Duty  towards  God  and 
the  Duty  towards  your  neighbor  in  the  Catechism, 
and   see   how   fine   they   are   instead   of   thinking 


DIVINE  ANSWERS  299 

merely  how  hard  to  remember.  Fine,  they  are! 
There  is  nothing  better  for  self-examination  before 
Communion.  Read  the  twelfth  chapter  of 
Romans,  which  is  another  fuller  exposition  of  the 
Law.  And  read  the  Beatitudes.  For  all  the  Law 
is  there ;  or,  rather,  look  at  Christ,  for  He  Himself 
is  Righteousness. 


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